PINACEAE 33 



CRYPTOMERIA 



Evergreen trees with spirally arranged, awl-shaped leaves, broad and 

 sessile at the base. Flowers monoecious. Staminate flowers in numerous 

 spike-like clusters, composed of imbricated stamens with pointed con- 

 nectives and 3-5 pollen sacs to each scale. Pistillate flowers solitary, 

 lateral on the branchlet, a globose conelet composed of spirally arranged, 

 imbricated scales, with 3-5 ovules on each scale. The fruit is a globose 

 cone with brown, peltate scales furnished with recurved bracts on the outer 

 surface, and 3-5 sharp points on the top; each scale bears 3-5 narrowly 

 winged seeds. 



1 species in China and Japan. 



This tree merits extensive planting for the purposes of afforestation 

 and reforestation. An ounce of seed contains about 50,000 seeds. One 

 pound will sow an area of seed bed about 100 feet square. The seedlings 

 should be given half shade for the first year, and twice transplanted in 

 the nursery before setting out in the field. 



Cryptomeria japonica D. Don. 

 Peacock Pine. (Kung Chiao Tsung.) 



Tree sometimes 45 m. tall with cinnamon-red bark, peeling in long, 

 thin shreads. Leaves persistent for 4 or 5 years, acute, 5 ranked, directed 

 forwards, laterally compressed and keeled. Cone small, matures the 

 first year, and remains on the branch one or more years after the 

 seeds are shed. 



China: Kiangsi, Hupeh, Szechuan, Yunnan, Chekiang, and Fukien. 



Robert Fortune, in 1849, encountered this tree wild in the mountains 

 near Ningpo, growing in company with Cunninghamia, and authorities 

 believe it may still be found growing spontaneously in the mountains 

 of Chekiang and Fukien, but it is now most commonly seen as a cultivated 

 tree. Cryptomeria is the largest, the most useful and the most commonly 

 planted timber tree in Japan, imparting a characteristic feature to her 

 landscape. The tree is rapid growing, attaining a large size, specimens 

 measuring 150 feet high are not rare. It has a pale sap wood, dark, 

 reddish heart wood. The wood is devoted to many uses, the principal 

 ones being for bridge, house and ship building. The bark is used by the 

 Japanese peasants to shingle the roofs of their houses. From the leaves 

 an essential oil may be extracted. 



