RETINOSPOKA PILICOIDES, K. FILIFEEA. 



243 



Retinospora ericoides. — A small compact shrub, generally of 

 conical form, not exceeding 3 or 4 feet in height. The branches 

 are very numerous, and furnished with short branchlets clothed 

 with linear pointed leaves arranged in opposite cross pairs, and 

 marked beneath with two glaucous lines. During the growing 

 season the foliage is of a deep pea-green colour, which changes 

 in autumn to a brownish- violet. 



We have included this plant among the Eetinosporas on account 

 of its name having become • too firmly fixed in garden nomenclature 

 to admit of its removal by a mere stroke of the pen. Its proper 

 place is under Biota, of which it is nothing more than a " juvenile " 

 form, that is to say, it originated from a seedling in which the pri- 

 mordial leaves only are developed. Mr. Gordon's assertion that this 

 shrub and Retinospora leptoclada " are cultivated in Japan, in pots, 

 under the name of Nezu" (Pinetum, p. 363), is without foundation, 

 as neither of them is known to Japanese horticulturists. 



Retinospora filicoides.— A beautiful 

 tree, resembling in habit B. obtusa, of 

 which it is a variety. The branches 

 are thickly furnished with short fern- 

 like branchlets, of equal size, and 

 distichously arranged. #The leaves are 

 closely imbricated in four rows, thick 

 in texture, and of a rich deep green 

 colour on the upper side of the 

 branchlets, and slightly glaucous on 

 the under side. 



Retinospora nlifera.— A low tree 

 of irregular outline, well distinguished 

 by its thread-like pensile branchlets. 

 "The branches are spreading, with 

 the secondary ones alternate, long, 

 somewhat distant, and furnished prin- 

 .— Retinospora jtucoidet. This ana cipally on one side with numerous 



following figs, from the Gardener? r J 



branchlets of various lengths, the ter- 

 ones longer, filiform, and with tufts of small spray at their 

 " The leaves are subulate, pointed, distant, in alternate 

 and fulvous green in colour* 



Pig. 54 

 the four 



Chronicle. 



minal 

 points 

 pairs, 



