Thuy 



a 



195 



THUYA JAPONICA, Japanese Thuya 



Thuya japonka, Maximowicz, MH. Biol. i. 26 (1866) ; Masters, /<7r. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xviii. 486 (1881), 

 and Gard. Chron. xxi. 258, fig. 87 (1897); Revue Horiicole, 1896, p. i6o; Kent, in Veitch's 

 Man. Conifera, 244 (1900); Shirasawa, Icon, des Essences forestiires du Japan, 28, t. xi. 18-34 

 (1900). 



Thuya Siandishii, Carrifere, Traite Gen. Conif. 108 (1867). 



Thuya gigantea, vat. japonica, Franchet et Savatier, Enum. PI. Jap. i. 469 (1875). 



Thujopsis Standishii, Gordon, Pin. Suppl. 100 (1862). 



A tree attaining, according to Shirasawa, a height of 90 feet in Japan, with a 

 tapering stem, open in habit as cultivated in England, and not forming such a dense 

 pyramid as Thuya plicata. Bark of the trunk scaling off in very narrow longitudinal 

 papery strips. The bark commences to scale on young branches of less than a 

 half inch in diameter. The branches curve upwards towards their extremities. 



The branch-systems, 3-4 pinnate, are disposed in horizontal planes, which droop 

 at their outer extremities. Primary axes terete, with leaves densely crowded, all 

 the four sets ending in short, rigid, thick, free points, glands being absent. The 

 leaves on the ultimate branchlets are obtuse, and not acutely pointed as in Thuya 

 plicata ; and glands may be present or absent on the flat leaves. The foliage is 

 light green above, while on the under surface there are whitish streaks, somewhat 

 triangular in outline, which exceed in area the greener parts. 



Male flowers cylindrical, with 6 decussate pairs of stamens. The cones are 

 deflected, ovoid, and composed of 5 to 6 pairs of scales, of which the second and third 

 pairs are larger than the others and fertile. The scales are broadly oval, with a 

 rounded apex, from below which externally is given off a short, broad, triangular 

 process, projecting from the scale at right angles or nearly so. The seeds, three to 

 each fertile scale, and nearly equal to it in length, differ considerably from those of 

 Thuya plicata and Thuya occidentalis, the wing being narrow, not so scarious in 

 texture, entire, and not notched at the summit. 



Fortune discovered Thuya japonica in cultivation around Tokyo in 1 860, and 

 sent home seeds of it to the nursery of Mr. Standish at Ascot, who distributed 

 plants under the name of Thujopsis Standishii. Maximowicz, who had also seen it 

 cultivated at Tokyo, gave the species its first authoritative name in 1861. Maries 

 found it growing wild on the mountains of Nikko, in central Japan, in 1877. 

 Sargent,' who, in company with James H. Veitch, met with a few solitary specimens 

 on the shores of Lake Yumoto in these mountains, at 4000 feet altitude, describes 

 it as a small pyramidal tree of 20 to 30 feet high, of open and graceful habit, with pale 

 green foliage and bright red bark. Shirasawa, however, states that it attains a height 

 of 90 feet, with a diameter of stem of nearly 6 feet ; and that it grows in the central 

 chain of Hondo, in the mountains of Kaga, Hida, and Shinano, at elevations of 

 2000 to 6600 feet. The stem, according to Shirasawa, is often twisted, and gives 

 off great wide-spreading branches. (A. H.) 



' Garden and Ftrest, 1893, p. 442, and 1897, p. 441. 



