290 



SCIADOPITYS VERTICILLATA. 



The following sketch of its present condition in its native country 

 is from the pen of one of the most eminent living authorities on 

 Forestry and Arboriculture : 



" The Sciadopitys was for a long time known only from a few 

 individuals cultivated in temple gardens and from the grove on the 

 hill in Kiushiu where the ancient monastery town of Koya stands, to 

 which the Sciadopitys owes one of its Japanese names, Koya-maki. 

 There is said to be a remarkable grove of these trees here which 

 was once supposed to be the original home of the species, but the best 

 authorities now agree that they were originally planted by the monks. 

 In the province of Mino on the Nakasendo below Nakatsu-gawa, we saw 

 young plants of Sciadopitys in all the roadside gardens, a pretty sure 

 indication in this remote region that the tree was growing in the woods 

 not very far off, and here for the next two or three 

 days we saw it sending up its narrow pyramidal heads 

 above the Pines and other trees of the forest, growing, 

 as we thought, quite naturally, and leading us to 

 believe that we had found the true home of this 

 tree, although in a country like Japan which has 

 been densely populated for centuries and in which 

 transplanting has been a recognised industry for more 

 than a thousand years, it is not easy to determine 

 whether a forest has been 

 planted by man or not. But 

 whether these trees had been 

 planted or whether they were 

 the offspring of trees brought 

 from some other region or 

 the indigenous inhabitants of 

 the forest, the Sciadopitys 

 grows on the mountains of 

 Mino in countless thousands, 

 often rising with a tall straight 

 trunk to the height of nearly 

 100 feet, and remarkable in 

 its narrow compact pyramidal 

 head of dark and lustrous 

 foliage. The wood, which is 

 nearly white, strong and 

 straight-grained, is a regular 

 article of commerce in this 



part of Japan, and from Xakatsu-gawa is floated in rafts down the 

 Kisiogaiva to Osaka where it is said to be chiefly consumed. Except 

 in the neighbourhood of Nakatsu-gawa the Sciadopitys is not very much 

 cultivated as a garden plant in Japan; and it is not often found in 

 old gardens except in the immediate neighbourhood of temples where 

 picturesque old specimens may occasionally be seen occupying a place 

 of honour within the fence which encloses the principal building, 

 and carefully protected by low stone railings. There is a remarkable 

 specimen with pendulous branches standing before one of the mortuary 

 temples in the Shiba Park in Tokio."* 



:: ~ 0. S. Sargent, Forest Flora of Japan, p. 77. 



Fig. 88. Sciadopitys verticillata in the Shiba Park, Tokio. 



