Cupressus ii97 



whence it was sent out under the name of Thujopsis Tsckugatskoi, Fischer ; ^ and, 

 soon after, it became known in France ^ under the name Thujopsis borealis, Carriere. 

 It appears to have been first introduced^ into England by Pontey, of Plymouth, 

 who received plants from Booth, of Hamburg, which in 1854 were 3 ft. high. 



Though not so generally planted, or so common, in gardens as Lawson 

 cypress, it has been during the last fifty years a popular tree among nurserymen under 

 its old name of Thujopsis borealis. Though looked on as an ornamental tree only, my 

 experience of it on poor dry soil justifies me in thinking that, if it could be pro- 

 cured at a reasonable cost, it would be one of the most valuable trees for such soils 

 that can be planted ; because it is not only absolutely hardy ^ under all conditions in 

 every part of the country, but will thrive where no other tree whose timber at all 

 approaches it in value, except perhaps the larch, will grow to any size. Though a 

 slow grower at first, and not likely to attain in this country the dimensions of Thuja 

 plicata, it has all the other good qualities of that tree in an even greater degree. 

 The difficulty of raising it from seed, which I and others have experienced, is one that 

 I cannot yet explain, for though I have on several occasions sown carefully both 

 imported seed and freshly gathered seeds saved from my own trees, I have never 

 had more than a very small percentage of germination, the seeds mostly lying 

 dormant for more than a year without losing their apparent freshness. 



Mr. J. Rafn, of Copenhagen, whose tests of the germination of tree seeds have 

 been published in the Trans. Roy. Scot. Arb. Soc. xvi. 277 (1900), informed me that 

 his experience was similar. 



In October 1905, I gathered a quantity of seed from my own trees, which had 

 been produced in 1904, and seemed mature in the spring of 1905, though the 

 cones remained closed till autumn. Part of this seed was sown under glass in 

 boxes, part in a frame, and part in the open ground, as soon as it was dry ; but 

 the proportion which germinated in the following year was not i per cent. I 

 was much surprised, therefore, when in the spring of 1907 the seed germinated 

 regularly and well, a unique instance, in my experience, with seeds of this character 

 when properly treated. I am however informed by Capt. the Hon. R. Coke, that 

 he raised a considerable number of seedlings of this tree, by gathering the fruit in 

 May, drying it in the sun, and sowing at once. In this case, the seed germinates 

 in the succeeding spring, and so gains a year over autumn sowing.* 



As it is easily propagated from cuttings, the plants sold in nurseries are 

 usually so produced ; and though I have the same preference for seedlings in 

 this case as in others, I am not able to say from experience that cuttings will 

 not make as good trees eventually. 



1 Cf. Lindley, in Gard. Chron. 1854, p. 727, and 1856, p. 772, who says that the seeds were supposed to have come 

 from "Tschukotsk, a cape on the west coast of Kamschatka." 



2 It was exhibited, as Thujopsis borealis, by Thibaut and Keteleer, at a horticultural meeting in Paris in 1852, and 

 occurs in the list of plants cultivated in the Jardin des Plantes in 1853. Cf. Gard. Chron. 1854, p. 727. It was also called 

 Pinus Tschugatskoi hy French nurserymen. Cf. Gard. Chron. 1856, p. 342. 



3 In Palmer's frost-tables, quoted by Lawson, out of seventy-eight places from which he had reports of the effects of the 

 severe winter of 1860-61, not one tree was killed, and only three were slightly injured. 



* On 1 9th October 1909, I sowed a packet of seed freshly gathered at Bayfordbury, and kept the pot in a cold frame. 

 On loth April 1910, a large proportion of this seed had germinated. Messrs. B. Reid of Aberdeen also inform me that for 

 the first time in their experience, seeds of this species have germinated in the next spring after sowing ; so there is evidently 

 some condition that we do not yet understand, which governs the germination of the seeds of this species. 



