Illustrations of Conifers. 65 



SCIADOPITYS VERTICILLATA (Siebold and Ziiccarini). 



UMBRELLA PINE. 



Botanical Magazine t. 8050 (1905). 



Vdtch'x Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 287 (1900). 



Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. III. p. 568 (1908). 



AN evergreen tree attaining in Japan a height of 120 feet and a 

 girth of 12 feet. Bark reddish-brown, scaling off in long strips. 

 Branches sub-verticillate. Branchlets brown, glabrous, bearing minute, 

 membranous, ovate-lanceolate scales which are spirally arranged and 

 represent true leaves. 



At the apex of the shoot there is a ring of similar scales, from 

 the axils of which arise a whorl of leaf-like shoots, ten to thirty in 

 number and acting the part of true leaves, 2 to 5 inches long, linear, 

 rigid, spreading, dark green and glossy above, paler beneath, grooved 

 on both surfaces. 



Male flowers in dense heads at the apex of short branchlets ; f inch 

 long, sub-sessile, with numerous spirally arranged, shortly stalked an- 

 thers. Cones borne on short stout stalks, clothed with a few membra- 

 nous bracts, either remaining terminal and erect or pushed aside by 

 the growth of a lateral branch ; ripening in two years and persisting 

 on the tree for some months after the seeds escape ; 3 inches long, 

 composed of woody fan- shaped scales with an irregular ridge on 

 their convex outer surfaces. Seeds five to nine on each scale, oval, 

 surrounded by a narrow wing. 



This interesting tree is a native of Japan, and according to 

 Shirasawa grows wild in mixture with Abies firrna and Cupressus 

 pisifera at 600 to 5,000 feet elevation in the forests of Kiso and 

 Shinano. It is known in Japan as "Koyamaki." 



Seeds of Sciadopitys verticillata were first sent to England in 

 1861. It is of very slow growth and only small specimens are known 

 in England. The wood is soft and used in Japan for boat-building 

 and making casks. 



There is a specimen in the garden at Bayfordbury which has 

 attained a height of 10 feet and coned freely in 1908. 



The cone figured was gathered from a small tree at Pencarrow, 

 Cornwall. 



