THE CONIFERS. 11 



m 



It IS not thought now that Podocarpus, a genus of the tropical and subtropical regions of 

 both hemispheres and of Tasmania, is indigenous in Japan, although two species are often 

 cultivated there. The more common is Podocarpus macrophylla, a small tree with lanceolate 

 acute leaves, and a common hedge-plant in Tokyo gardens, in which it is often cut into 

 fantastic shapes. It is a much less beautiful, although a hardier, tree than Podocarpus 

 Nageia, with its thick broad glossy leaves and beautiful purple trunks, the second species 

 seen in Japan. It is one of the favorite subjects, especially in a variety in which the leaves 

 are marked by broad white stripes, for dwarfing and pot-culture. The real beauty of this 

 tree is only seen, however, when it has become large and old and the trunk is covered with its 

 pecuHar smooth purple bark. A grove of these trees on the hill behind the Shinto temples 

 , at Nara is one of the most interesting spots in Japan, and in solemn dignity and beauty is 

 only surpassed by the grove of Cryptomerias which surrounds the mausoleums of leyasu and 

 lemitsu at Nikko. 



Like Cryptomeria, Sciadopitys is monotypic and endemic to Japan. It is one of the most 

 curious and interesting of trees, with scale-like leaves in whose axils are produced the phylloid 

 shoots, which are generally mistaken for the leaves, and which are arranged near the ends of 

 the branches like the ribs of an umbrella, — a peculiarity to which this tree owes its familiar 

 English name, the Umbrella Pine. Like the Gingko, the Sciadopitys was for a long time 

 known only from a few individuals cultivated in temple gardens and from the grove on the 

 hill in Kyushu, where the ancient monastery town of Koya stands, to which the Sciadopitys 

 owes its Japanese name, Koya-maki. There is said to be a remarkable grove of these trees 

 here, which was once supposed to be the original home of the species ; but Rein and other 

 writers now agree in thinking that they were originally planted by the monks. Dupont found 

 what he considered indigenous trees on Chimono and in the province of Mino. In this prov- 

 ince, on the Nakasend5, below Nakatsu-gawa, we saw young plants of the Koya-maki in all the 

 roadside gardens, a pretty sure indication in- this remote region that the tree was growing in 

 the woods not very far off, and here for the next two or three days we saw it sending up its 

 narrow pyramidal heads above the Pines and other trees of the forest, growing, as we thought, 

 quite naturally, and leading us to believe that we had found the true home of this tree, 

 although in a country like Japan, which has been densely populated for centuries, and in 

 which tree-planting has been a recognized industry for more than a thousand years, it is not 

 easy to determine whether a forest has been planted by man or not. But whether these trees 

 had been planted or whether they were the offspring of trees brought from some other region, 

 or the indigenous inhabitants of the forest, the Sciadopitys grows on the mountains of Mino 

 in countless thousands, often rising with a tall straight trunk to the height of nearly a hun- 

 dred feet, and remarkable in its narrow compact pyramidal head of dark and lustrous foliage. 

 The wood, which is nearly white, strong, and straight-grained, is a regular article of commerce 

 in this part of Japan, and from Nakatsu-gawa is floated in rafts down the Kisogawa to Osaka, 

 where it is said to be chiefly consumed. Except in the neighborhood of Nakatsu-gawa, the 

 Sciadopitys is not very much cultivated as a garden-plant in Japan ; and it is not often found 

 in old gardens, except in the immediate neighborhood of temples, where picturesque old speci- 

 mens may occasionally be seen occupying a place of honor within the fence which incloses 



