574 EVESGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 



Flushing. In Japan, on the mountains of the island of Nippon, it 

 is a grand forest tree, from seventy to one hundred feet high, with 

 a straight trunk from three to five feet in diameter. Its Japan- 

 ese name signifies "tree of the sun.'' The plants in the nursery 

 have a free, spreading growth, like red cedars, growing in strong 

 soils, with fqliage resembling that of the arbor-vitaes. The massy 

 character of the foliage, and the free spreading growth, so rare 

 among the arbor-vitaes, suggest that this tree, if its hardiness is 

 established, is likely to take a conspicuous place among popular 

 evergreens. The leaves have a warm green color, which they are 

 said to retain throughout the winter. The twigs have a reddish 

 color. 



The Golden Retinispora. H. pisifera aurea. — A smaller and 

 slenderer tree than the preceding, also from Japan, just introduced, 

 and said to be "promising." Sargent marks it for us as "oneot 

 the most beautiful of trees," and all those who have it on trial 

 agree in considering it uncommonly beautiful and probably hardy. 



THE YEW FAMILY. 

 Taxus, Cephalotaxus, Torreya, and Podocarpus. 



Whatever legendary and poetical interests are associated with, 

 the yews of the mother country, seem unlikely to be maintained 

 in the United States. The " islands of Britain have a climate pe- 

 culiarly adapted to this tree. They there become trees with massive 

 trunks and noble heads. Though quite a number of species are suf- 

 ficiently hardy for general cultivation with us, and are among the 

 most interesting of small evergreens, they cannot equal their pro- 

 totypes in England, nor their rivals among those species for which 

 our climate is best suited. There are specimens in England eight 

 hundred years old, with trunks eight feet in diameter. The yews, 

 are of slow growth, but great duration, and generally noted for 

 dark and dense foliage, resembling that of the firs, but the leaves 

 are longer and thicker. A deep, moist, clayey soil, and partial 

 shade, suit the tree best. The foliage loses the purity of its green, 

 and becomes rusty when fully exposed to our summer sun. 



