CKYPTOMERIA JAPONICA. 219 



retains in all its intensity the glowing crimson hue of 0. elegans 

 during the winter months, with the exception of the pendulous 

 tips of the branchlets, which continue green. 



Cryptomeria elegans is so distinct from' G. japonica that we have 

 preferred describing it as specifically different, although it has, we 

 believe, never been met with in a wild state. It is quite hardy, 

 and is comparatively free from the drawbacks that have proved so 

 disappointing in G. japonica, especially during the winter months. On 

 account of the peculiar and remarkable change in colour which the 

 foliage undergoes at the end of autumn, together with its pleasing 

 habit, a first rank among out-of-door winter decorative plants is justly 

 assigned to it. The resemblance of C. elegans during the growing 

 season to Araucaria Cunninghami is very apparent, and it thus, in a 

 great measure, supplies in the open ground the place of that beautiful 

 but tender tree. 



Cryptomeria japonica. — A large tree of elongated spiry outline, 

 with an erect tapering trunk, attaining a height of from 120 to 

 150 feet, and even more. The branches are numerous, produced 

 at irregular intervals around the trunk, frondose and spreading, the 

 lower ones deflexed with the extremities ascending; the branchlets 

 are very numerous, generally alternate, and with their foliage 

 bright fulvous green during the growing season, which changes to 

 a deeper and duller colour in winter. The leaves are close-set, 

 appressed to the stem, obscurely four-angled, thick and decurrent 

 at the base, falcate, pointed, and faintly marked with two glaucous 

 lines beneath. The cones are globular, about half an inch in 

 diameter, and composed of numerous scales bearing from three to 

 five seeds each. 



Habitat. — Japan, abundant on some of the mountain slopes, where 

 it constitutes the chief part of the forests, from their base to 

 1,500 feet of elevation; also frequent in China under cultivation. 



Introduced into England in 1844 by the Horticultural Society of 

 London, through their collector, Mr. Eobert Fortune, who sent 

 seeds from Shanghai.* 



Cryptomeria japonica Lobbi is more compact in habit than 

 the tree above described; the branchlets are less pendulous, the 

 foliage is of a brighter and deeper green, the leaves shorter, more 

 * Gardeners' Chronicle, 1845, p. Zii. 



