SCIADOPITYS YERTICILLATA. 289 



along the inner face. Strobiles cylindric, obtuse, 2 4 inches long 

 and 1*25 2'5 inches in diameter, the scales large in proportion to the 

 size of the cone. Seeds compressed with a small membraneous wing. 



Sciadopitys verticillata, Siebold and Zuccarini, loc. cit. supra. Liudley in Gard. 

 Chron. 1862, pp. 22, 360, with fig. Murray, Pines and Firs of Japan, 109, with 

 figs. Van Houtte, Flore des Serres, XIV. t. 1483. Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 232. 

 Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 435 Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 376. Masters in Journ. 

 Bot. XXII. (1884), p. 97; Journ. Linn. Soc. XVIII. 502; and Journ. R. Hort. Soc. 

 XIV. 70. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 203, with fig. 



Taxus verticillata, Thunberg, Fl. Jap. 276 (1784). 



Eng. Umbrella Pine. Fr. Sapin a Parasol. Germ. Japanische Schirmtanne. 

 Ital. II pino parasole. Jap. Koya-maki. 



This remarkable tree first became known to Europeans through the 

 Swedish botanist, Thunberg, who saw it in cultivation during his 

 mission to Japan, 1775 1776. Although possessed of considerable 

 botanical knowledge for that period, Thunberg, curiously enough, 

 believed it to be a species of Yew, and he accordingly referred it to 

 the genus Taxus in his " Flora japonica " published a few years after his 

 return to Europe, a circumstance that caused it to be generally 

 overlooked by botanists till Siebold, half a century later, with better 

 opportunities of observing it, determined its true characters and founded 

 upon it the genus Sciadopitys. The publication of Siebold's description 

 with excellent figures in 1842, attracted much attention, and a general 

 desire was felt among botanists that so remarkable a tree should be 

 introduced into European gardens, a wish that was not destined to 

 be satisfied so long as Japan remained closed against foreigners. 

 Nevertheless, through the footing the Dutch had gained in the country, 

 many Japanese plants found their way into the Botanic garden 

 established by them at Buitenzorg in Java, and among these was 

 the Sciadopitys, whence Thomas Lobb while collecting for the Veitchian 

 firm obtained the first plant that reached England alive ; it arrived 

 at the Exeter nursery in 1853 in very feeble health, and all 

 attempts to restore it proved fruitless. A few years later the great 

 political changes in Japan began, and in 1861 Mr. John Gould Veitch 

 brought home cones and seeds of the Sciadopitys gathered in its 

 native country, and from these most of the oldest specimens growing 

 in Europe were raised. About the same time or shortly afterwards, 

 Mr. Eobert Fortune sent seeds to Mr. Standish at Ascot. 



The Sciadopitys has now been in our midst more than forty years, 

 but large specimens are still comparatively rare. Complaints have arisen 

 in many places that it will not grow, whence it is evident that its 

 requirements have not been met, and yet these may be thus briefly 

 formulated "Where the Rhododendron thrives, the Sciadopitys will 

 grow." This means that the soil in which the Sciadopitys is planted must be 

 sufficiently retentive to afford a constant supply of moisture to the roots 

 during the growing season ; where this supply is intermittent, that is to say 

 when the Sciadopitys is planted in a soil that is sometimes dry and 

 sometimes wet according to the changes of weather, it does not thrive, 

 u 



