Illustrations of Conifers. 67 



CUNNINGHAMIA SINENSIS (E. Brown). 



Vritch's Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 292 (1900). 



Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. III. p. 494 (1908). 



AN evergreen tree attaining in China 150 feet in height and 18 feet 

 in girth. Bark brownish, scaling off in irregular longitudinal plates. 

 Branches at first in false whorls, afterwards given oif irregularly. Young 

 branchlets sub-opposite or in false whorls. 



Leaves densely and spirally arranged on the branchlets, but twisted 

 on their bases and thrown into two lateral spreading ranks; narrowed 

 at the base and decurrent on the shoot to the insertion of the next 

 leaf ; rigid, more or less curved, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, 1 to 2 

 inches long ; upper surface dark green, concave ; lower surface convex 

 with a green midrib and two white stomatic bands ; sharply and 

 finely serrate. 



Staminate flowers five to ten in an umbel at the apex of a branch- 

 let, the umbel surrounded at its base by numerous triangular imbricated 

 bracts ; each flower cylindrical, composed of spirally crowded stamens. 

 Fruit an ovoid-globose brownish cone, about l inches long, composed 

 of thin woody loosely-imbricated broadly ovate or reniform scales with 

 a cuspidate apex. Seeds three on each scale about J inch long, brown, 

 oblong, compressed, surrounded by a membranous narrow wing. 



Cunninghamia was discovered in the year 1701 by J. Cunningham 

 in the island of Chusan. This tree which has been known to the 

 Chinese from the most ancient times is widely spread throughout 

 the central, western and southern provinces of China. The timber 

 is used for building purposes and making tea-chests. 



Cunninghamia was introduced by William Kerr from Canton 

 into Kew Gardens in 1804, but no trees of that date are now known 

 to exist there. There is a small specimen at Bayfordbury which does 

 not thrive, being invariably cut by spring frost. 



The specimen illustrated is from a fine tree at Bicton in Devon- 

 shire. 



