THE JAPAN CEDAR. 75 



red colour, and with rough fringed edges. Male flowers on the 

 same tree, intermixed with the young cones, at the extremities 

 of the branchlets, and of a small oval or oblong shape, in large 

 loose clusters. Seeds ripen in September and October. 



A tall pyramidal tree, with a straight stem, from GO to 100 

 feet high, and four or five feet in diameter, with a brownish- 

 red bark. Wood compact, very white, soft, and easily worked, 

 and much used for various purposes, particularly for cabinet 

 work in Japan. 



It is found plentifully about Shanghae and other northern 

 parts of China, in the form of avenues and groves, and where 

 no doubt it has been introduced from Japan. Professor Thun- 

 berg, who in the year 1784 first published an account of this 

 tree under the name of Japan Cedar, states that it is found 

 both spontaneous and planted on the mountains of Nagasaki, 

 and elsewhere on the southern mountainous districts of 

 Japan, generally growing in damp soils on a basaltic sub- 

 stratum. 



Dr. Siebold, in his " Flora Japonica," calls it a majestic tree, 

 well deserving the name of Cedar ; that it grows from 60 to 

 100 feet high, and four or five feet in diameter, with a pyra- 

 midal-shaped head, and rather erect or horizontal branches ; 

 that it occurs in great abundance on the three great isles of 

 Japan, and most probably on the smaller ones, and that a tenth 

 part of the forests which cover the skirts of the mountains 

 between 500 and 1200 feet of elevation is composed of this 

 tree. It was first introduced into England by Fortune, in 

 1844. 



The Chinese name for this tree is " San-Suga " (common 

 evergreen), and the Japanese " Suga " (evergreen), or " Suga- 

 Mats " (evergreen fir) ; and a slight variety of it is sometimes 

 called " araucarioides " in the nurseries, on account of its sup- 

 posed resemblance to Araucaria Cunninghamii. 



