1 28 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



CRYPTOMERIA JAPONICA 



Cryptomtria japonica, Don, Trans. Linn. Soc. {Bot.), win. 167, tab. xiii. i (1839); Hooker, Icon. 

 Plant, vii. 668 (1844); Siebold, Flora Japonica, ii. 43, tab. 124, 124^ (1870); Kent in Veitch's 

 Man. Conifera, 263 (1900) ; Shirasawa, Iconographie des Essences Forestilres du Japan, text 24, 

 tab. ix. 25-42 (1900); Mayr, Fremdldndische Wald- und Parkbaiime, 278 (1906). 



A tall tree, attaining in Japan a height of 150 feet or more, and a girth of 20 to 25 

 feet, the trunk tapering from a broad base. Bark reddish brown, and peeling off in 

 long, ribbon-like shreds. Leaves persistent for 4 or 5 years, arranged spirally on the 

 shoots in five ranks, curving inwards and directed forwards, awl-shaped, tapering to 

 a point, compressed laterally, keeled on front and back, bearing stomata on both 

 sides, with the base decurrent on the branchlet to the insertion of the next leaf The 

 buds are minute, and composed of three minute leaves, which are free at the base, 

 and not decurrent. 



The male flowers are clustered at the ends of the branchlets in false racemes, the 

 leaves in the axils of which they arise being reduced in size, and fulfilling the function 

 of bracts. They appear on the tree in autumn and shed their pollen in early spring, 

 remaining for some time afterwards in a withered state. 



The buds of the female flowers are also to be seen in autumn terminating some 

 of the branchlets, and covered externally with small, awl-shaped leaves. 



The shoot ^ is frequently continued in the leafy state throughout the cone 

 (" proliferation "), and the extended portion often grows to several inches in length 

 beyond the cone, and even in some cases bears male catkins. 



Woody excrescences ^ of a conical shape often develop on the stem, to which they 

 are loosely connected. They correspond to the "wood-balls" which are found on 

 beeches and cedars, and like these are due to abnormal development of dormant 

 buds. 



Seedling : the cotyledons, which are generally 3 in number, the occurrence of 2 

 only being rare, are carried above ground by an erect caulicle, about | inch long, 

 ending below in a primary root, which is reddish, flexuous, and about 3 inches long, 

 giving off a few lateral fibres. The cotyledons are linear, flattened, obtuse, and about 

 ^ inch long ; two, narrowed at the base, are prolonged on the caulicle as ribs ; the 

 other, sessile on a broad base, is not decurrent ; all bear stomata on their upper surface. 

 The first leaves on the stem are in a whorl of 3, similar in shape to the cotyledons, 

 but longer and with slightly decurrent bases. The leaves following are inserted 

 spirally on the stem, and are longer, sharper-pointed, and more decurrent. All are 

 spreading, with stomata and a prominent median nerve on their lower surface. The 

 stem, roughened by the leaf-bases, terminates above in a cluster of 5 to 6 leaves, 

 crowded at their insertion and directed upwards. 



Remarkable instances of proliferous cones and other abnormalities are described and figured in /Cev. Horticok, 1887, 392. 



^ Figured in Card. Chron., May 30, 1903, p. 352. 



