Cercidiphyllum japonicum 
Native of Japan. 
Nat. Order: MaGNno.iacea. Tribe : TROCHODENDREA. 
Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Siebold and Zuccarini in ‘‘ Abhand. Acad. 
Muench.” vol. iv. 238 (1846) ; Sargent in “ Amer. Garden 
and Forest,” vi. 52 (1893). 
This very distinct Japanese tree has proved perfectly 
hardy here. It is deciduous, and its chief beauty is in the 
Spring, when the young leaves unfold. They are of a delicate 
pink colour, and the tree has then a very striking and beauti- 
ful appearance. In Autumn they change from a light green 
to a clear bright yellow. It is a rapid grower here, with 
slender branches of a fastigiate habit when young, being well 
clothed with leaves to the ground. The plant figured is 
ten feet high and thirty-two feet in circumference. In Japan 
it is considered a valuable timber tree, and grows to a great 
size, producing soft, straight-grained, light yellow wood, out 
of which the Ainos make the mortars which are used in every 
house for pounding grain, and from its great trunks they 
hollow their canoes. It grows to about a hundred feet in height. 
Cercidiphyllum was introduced by Messrs. Veitch in 1879, 
but owing to the difficulty of propagating it otherwise than 
-from seed, it was not distributed till many years afterwards. 
Growing wild so far north as Yeso, it may be assumed that it 
is hardy in Great Britain, as it has proved to be in Massa- 
chusetts, U.S.A. The photograph was taken on April 17th, 
when the leaves were not quite fully expanded. 
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