ADDISONIA 55 
(Plate 188) 
PINUS THUNBERGII 
Japanese Black Pine 
Native of Japan 
Family PINACEAE PINE Family 
so mrgsroneg Sieb, & Zucc. Fl. Jap. 2: 24. 1842. Not Pinus Massoniana 
1828 
Pinus Thunbergit Parl. in DC. Prodr. 16?: 388. 8. 
Many species of pine have peculiarities of habit which permit their 
identification at a distance, and this is one of them. In a young 
state this peculiarity is not pronounced, but as the tree grows it 
becomes more and more emphasized. The Japanese black pine 
often has a characteristic leaning habit, which, with a contortion or 
bending of the trunk, gives it a striking and unique appearance in 
the landscape, this oddity providing it with a desirable place in 
landscape work. Of easy culture, being equally well adapted to 
poor or rich soils, it is especially valuable in horticulture, for it 
readily adapts itself to a variety of conditions. ‘This pine has been 
in cultivation in the New York Botanical Garden since 1898, and it 
is from one of the specimens there that the illustration was prepared. 
A native of Japan, except in the northern island of Yesso, it is 
also extensively cultivated there; the native use as a shelter-tree 
along the seacoast to protect cultivated lands from the sweep of the 
sea winds, and the employment of it for fixing sand dunes and on 
exhausted lands unfit for other crops, suggest valuable uses for it in 
this coun 
Itis acnociated with the religious life of Japan, for it is found there 
in temple enclosures and cemeteries. The Japanese employ this 
pine in exercising their instinct for formal training, remarkable 
examples, the result of years or even centuries of training, exist. 
In some specimens the branches have been artificially trained in a 
horizontal position so that they cover an area over two hundred 
and fifty feet in diameter. A most remarkable example, in a 
monastery garden, has been trained in the form of a junk, the 
central trunk forming the mast, opposite branches having been 
trained to represent the hull of the junk; the priests of the monastery 
claim that this is the result of over three centuries of training. 
Pinus Thunbergit was introduced by Siebold into Europe in 
1855, and it made its first appearance in Great Britain in 1861 
through John Gould Veitch. At first it was considered identical 
