54 BIOTA, OR 



Biota Orientalis falcata, Lindley, the falcate scaled Arbor- 

 Vita?. 



Syn. Thuja falcata, Hort. 

 Biota Fortunei, Hort, 



This kind is very upright and pyramidal in its growth, 

 in consequence of which it is largely employed by the Japanese 

 in forming hedges, for which its close, compact habit renders 

 it most suitable. 



Mr. Fortune found it at Youkahama, in Japan, forming a 

 dense, conical bush, from 12 to 15 feet high, with great green 

 cones, having the spine at the end of the scales, long, and 

 curved backwards, like a small sickle. 



Biota Orientalis Pekinensis, Gordon, the Peking Arbor- 

 Vitas. 



Leaves on the adult plants very small, scale-formed, closely 

 imbricated in four rows, ovate-pointed, and furrowed on the 

 back ; the marginal ones lap over on both sides, the upper 

 and under ones are flat, thickened at the points, glaucous 

 green, and shining when young, but dull green when old. 

 Branches rather long and somewhat spreading. Branchlets 

 slender, flat, linear, and not very thickly disposed in two 

 lateral rows. Cones small, globular, solitary at the ends of 

 the small branchlets, half an inch long, and the same in breadth, 

 and of a fine glaucous violet colour when young. Scales mostly 

 eight in number, with the outer ones large, flat, broadly ovate, 

 and thickened near the ends, and the inner or central ones 

 narrow, very much smaller, only -a little longer, and truncate, 

 with a short stout spine near the top. Seeds oval, wingless, 

 and in twos at the base of the scales. 



A splendid tree, from 50 to GO feet high, with a stem two 

 feet in diameter, found by Mr. Fortune on the Western Hills, 

 near Peking, in 1861. 





