Thuya 197 



THUYA ORIENTALIS, Chinese Arbor Vit^ 



Thuya orientalis, Linnjeus, Sp. PI. 1002 (1753); lx>uAon, Arb. et T^rw/. 5n/. iv. 2459 (1838) ; 

 Masters, /i3r. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xviii. 488; Kent, in Veitch's Man. Cottifem, 248 (1900). 

 "^Siota orientalis, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 47 (1847). 



A tree or dense shrub, with the trunk often branching into several stems from 

 near the base. Bark of trunk thin, reddish brown, and separating in longitudinal 

 papery scales. The bark begins to scale on branches which are about a half inch in 

 thickness. The branches are ascending, becoming tortuose at their extremities, 

 and giving off more or less equal -sided branch -systems, which are disposed in 

 vertical planes, with their inner edge directed towards the stem of the tree. These 

 are finer and more closely ramified than in the preceding species. Their main axes 

 are terete ; bearing median leaves, marked by a glandular longitudinal depression, 

 and ending in triangular free points (not appressed to the axis) ; and lateral leaves, 

 ending in similar but longer free points, which are thickened at the part where they 

 become free and reflected away from the axis. The leaves on the ultimate branchlets 

 are closely imbricated, appressed to the stem, and marked with longitudinal de- 

 pressions. 



The male flowers are globose and composed of 4 decussate pairs of stamens. 



The cones ^ are erect and ovoid, fleshy and bluish before ripening, but 

 ultimately becoming dry and woody, the scales gaping widely. Scales, usually 

 3 pairs (occasionally a fourth pair, sterile and much reduced, appears at the base), 

 the two lowest fertile, the uppermost pair aborted and sterile : ovate, obtuse, thick, 

 and ligneous, bearing externally below the apex a hooked process. The seeds, 

 2 on each scale, are large, ovoid, without wings, brown in colour, with a white, large, 

 oblong hilum. 



The seedling^ resembles that of the other species of Thuya, except that the 

 cotyledons are much larger, about an inch in length. 



Varieties 



A great number of varieties of this species have been obtained. The most 

 remarkable of these are : 



I. V 2ir. pendula, Masters, yi3r. R. Hort. Soc. xiv. 252. 



Thuya pendula, Lambert, Genus Pinus, ed. 2, ii. 115 t. 52; Siebold et Zuccarini, Fl. Jap. 



ii. 30 t. 117. 

 Thuya filiformis, Lindley, Bot. Reg. xxviii. t. 20 (1842). 

 Biota pendula, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 49. 

 Cupressus pendula, Thunberg, Fl. Jap. 265. 



' The cones ripen in one year, but frequently in England retain their seed till the spring of the following year. 

 2 Tubeuf, Samcn, Friichte, u. Keimlinge, 1 04, fig. 144 (1891). 



