272 Florlcultwal and Botanical Notices. 



Of this fine species, thousands of seedlings were distributed 

 by the Horticuhural Society, and where are they now ? The 

 greater part have perished, because the public was unac- 

 quainted with the vahie of so beautiful an evergreen. There 

 was no certainty that it was hardy, and now, that experience 

 has shown that our winters will no more touch it than they 

 will a Spruce Fir, the old stock is gone and fresh supplies 

 must be sought in China. It was the same with the Arau- 

 caria of Chili, with the Deodar, and with many others. 



Au acquisition of the highest interest, lately received by 

 Mr. Standish, of the Bagshot Nursery, will undergo the same 

 fate, unless the history of it, and the certainty of its being 

 still more hardy than Cryptomeria, shall be pointed out, so 

 as to leave no room for misapprehension. We allude to the 

 Funebral Cypress. 



This plant was first mentioned in Lord Macartney's 

 Voyage as growing in a place called ' the Vale of Tombs, 

 near the tower of the thundering winds,' in the province of 

 Zhe-hol ; which is a mountainous district, lying in latitude 

 41° 58' N., in Chinese Tartary, and has a far more rigorous 

 climate than is ever known in England. The plants found 

 in this province consist of hardy northern forms, oaks, elms, 

 ashes, willows, pines, elders, sophora japonica, together with 

 herbs of northern habits, calculated to bear severe frost, such 

 as asters, paeonies, Solomon's seal, pinks, &c. In the fore- 

 ground of the landscape representing ' the Vale of Tombs' is a 

 specimen of Funebral Cypress, much resembling a weeping wil- 

 low ; and the weeping tree, so commonly represented in Chinese 

 paper-hangings and porcelain, is evidently the same species. 



The seedlings in the Bagshot Nursery were raised from 

 cones lately procured by Mr. Fortune, while at Shanghae, 

 from a place 200 miles to the north of that port. We have 

 also received a dried specimen of it, which enables us to say 

 that it must be a plant of the greatest beauty. It may be 

 best described as a tree like the weeping willow in growth, 

 with the foliage of the savin, but of a brighter green ; it is, 

 however, not a juniper, as the savin is, but a genuine cypress. 

 It has long been a subject of regret that the Italian cypress 

 cannot be made to endure our climate, and to decorate our 

 burial-places; but we have now a finer tree, still better 

 adapted for the purpose." 



