238 THE BOOK OF EVEEGEEEXS. 



Si verticillata, Siebold & Zucewini. UMBRELLA FIXE. 

 Syn. Taxus verticillata, Thunberg ; Finns verticillatn, 

 Siebold in Verliandl. Leaves, from 2 to 4 inches long, 2 

 lines wide, linear, obtuse, smooth, persistent, sessile, entire, 

 in whorls of 30 or 40, at the nodes and extremities of the 

 branches. Cones, 3 inches long, 14- inches in diameter, el- 

 liptic-cylindrical, obtuse, solitary ; with wedge-shaped, cor- 

 rugated, imbricated, coriaceous and persistent scales ; 

 bracts, adherent, broad, and glabrous. Seeds, compressed, 

 elliptical, with a membranaceous, brown testa, and mem- 

 brauaceous wing. 



A tall, conical tree, varying from 80 to 140 feet in 

 height, with alternate or verticillate branches, and the 

 leaves in whorls or verticils. Murray remarks: "Mr. 

 Gordon, on the authority of Mr. Fortune, says it reaches 

 from 100 to 150 feet in height. Siebold describes it as 

 only 12 or 15 feet in height ; but this is a mistake, arising, 

 no doubt, from his having seen only some of the smaller 

 plants." The same writer observes : " It is a pyramidal 

 tree with dense foliage, and Mr. Veitch informs us reaches 

 the height of 70 or 80 feet ; " also that it is " found wild 

 in the eastern parts of Nippon , on the IKoya ridge of 

 mountains in the province of Eiiisiu, or, as Siebold writes 

 it, on Mt. Koja&an, in the province of Kii. According 

 to him it should also be found in some other parts of that 

 island, and of the island of Sikok. It is, however, chiefly 

 in a state of cultivation that it is met with, its varieties 

 being great favorites with the Japanese, and planted ex- 

 tensively in their gardens and about their temples." 



The Sciadopitys in the Bagshot nursery, England, in a 

 bleak and unsheltered situation, has withstood the past one 

 or t\vo winters without the slightest sign of being affect- 

 ed by the cold, although the weather was extremely trying 

 to those plants which are not perfectly hardy. 



Some of the English growers who have had an oppor- 

 tunity of judging of its merits, consider it " one of the 

 finest Conifers of Japan, or, after the Deodar, of all Asia." 



