50 Illustrations of Conifers. 



CUPRESSUS FUNEBRIS {Endlicher). 



Yeitch't Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 208 (1900). 



Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. V. p. 1162 (1910). 



A tree attaining in China 70 feet in height and 6 feet in girth. 

 Bark brown and smooth. Branches ascending and horizontal, end- 

 ing in long pendulous reddish-brown terete slender branchlets. 

 Branchlet systems, alternate, flattened, bi-pinnate ; ultimate divisions 

 compressed, ^ 6 inch wide, -^ inch thick. Leaves of two kinds; 

 lateral pairs conduplicate ; facial pairs flattened, ovate, keeled or 

 furrowed ; all appressed, free and mucronate at the apex, greyish- 

 green. 



Cones globose, ^ to | inch in diameter, on slender and often 

 curved stalks, ripening in the second year, dark brown ; scales 

 eight, each with a minute ovate process. Seeds three to five on each 

 scale, | inch long, shining reddish-brown, with scattered resin- 

 vesicles and narrow wings. 



Cupressus funebris is a native of Central China occurring in 

 mountainous districts at elevations usually below 3,000 feet. It 

 was discovered by Sir George Staunton, Secretary to Lord Macart- 

 ney's Embassy to China, in 1793 in the Vale of Tombs near Lake 

 Sihoo in the Hangchow prefecture of Chekiang, where it was 

 planted in quantity round the graves. 



The date of introduction into English cultivation is uncertain. 

 Fortune sent cones to Standish in 1848 from which plants were 

 raised at Bagshot. The species is not hardy except in the south- 

 west of England and in Ireland. There are two small specimens 

 at Bayfordbury. 



