SCIADOPITYS VERTICILLATA. 



287 



that of most other Conifers, but of which no trace whatever has been 

 discovered. Like the Gingko it stands alone amidst the existing vege- 

 tation, so that if the hypothesis of its great antiquity has any real 

 foundation, a whole series of forms which once connected it with other 

 types, must have been swept away, leaving the Sciadopitys as the 

 sole survivor of a phase of vegetation long since extinct. 



The generic characters will be understood from the description of 

 the species that follows. The Sciadopitys lias obtained in Japan a 

 popular name signifying the Umbrella Pine,* from the circumstance of 

 the phylloid shoots which function as leaves, spreading out like the 

 ribs of an umbrella. The scientific name is a literal translation of it, 

 and is formed from oW^, wmdo? (a parasol), and TTLTUQ (the pine tree). 



Sciadopitys verticillata. 



A tree of variable height, at its greatest development upwards of 1( 

 feet high, with a trunk 2 3 feet in diameter near the ground, and wil 



Fig. 86. 1, Staminate flowers of Sauulopitys ecrtieUlata 



nat. size. '2, Anther, front view. 3, Side view. 



4, Pollen grains, enlarged. 



100 



ground, and with 

 a narrow, compact, pyra- 

 midal crown. Bark greyish 

 brown, fissured and peeling 

 off in irregular flakes, 

 exposing a reddish brown 

 inner cortex. Branches 

 numerous, sub-verticillate 

 or scattered, spreading 

 horizontally. Branchlets 

 short, sub-verticillate or 

 alternate ; the bark pale 

 brown, fissured into 



narrow longitudinal plates that terminate in a small conical out- 

 growth. Buds sometimes in pairs on the fertile branchlets, from 

 one of which is developed either the or $ flower, dome- 

 shaped, pale yellowish brown, the perulse ovate or ovate-elliptic, closely 

 imbricated. Leaves scale-like, of deltoid shape and soon falling off ; 

 from the axils of these arise the phylloid shoots or cladodes which 

 perform the functions of true leaves ; they are produced in whorls of 

 twenty thirty each, and vary much in length and size according to 

 the age and condition of the tree, usually from 2 to 4 inches long, 

 marginate, with a median furrow on both sides, that on the under side 

 broader and deeper than that above, very coriaceous in texture, dark 

 glossy green above, paler beneath. Staminate flowers in dense heads 

 at the apex of short branchlets, and surrounded at the base by a few 

 .short involucral bracts, each flower globose, about 0*25 inch in diameter, the 

 anthers on short filaments inserted on a fleshy axis, two-lobed with vertical 

 dehiscence. Ovuliferous flowers terminal and solitary, sub-cylindric, 

 about an inch long, composed of rhomboidal-cuneate, imbricated scales, 

 >carcely thickened beyond the middle, reflexed at the apex and spirally 

 arranged around the axis, each scale bearing a partially concrescent 

 bract and seven nine anatropous ovules placed in a transverse series 



* Koya-nuiki, the name quoted iitfi'(t } means the Pine from Mount Koya. 



