THUIOPSIS DOLOBEATA. 



265 



Thuiopsis dolabrata.— A beautiful pyramidal tree, varying in 

 size according to the situation in which it is growing. " In a 

 young state, until it attains the height of from 15 to 18 feet, 

 nothing handsomer can be conceived ; the branches assume a 

 pendulous habit, the lower ones trailing on the ground; when it 

 becomes a tree from 40 to 50 feet, its symmetry and beauty are 

 much diminished, the lower branches die off, leaving but a mere 

 tuft at top. It appears to prefer shady moist situations, the 

 foliage being more luxuriant than when exposed to the sun." 



The habit and aspect of Thuiopsis dolabrata vary very considerably. 

 On the mountain slopes in central Japan, at- from 6,000 to 8,000 

 feet elevation, it is a straggling shrub, 8 to 10 feet high, forming 

 an undergrowth to Abies Veitchii and A. Marirsii, and not infre- 

 quently mixed with Khododendrons and dwarf Maples. Lower down, 

 and in the plains, it takes an arborescent form with stouter branchlets 

 and leaves. 



Thuiopsis dolabrata was first made known to Europeans by Thunberg, 

 in 1784. The first living plant received in England was sent to our 

 Exeter Nursery by Mr. Thomas Lobb, in 1853, from the Botanic 

 Garden at Buitenzorg, in Java; this plant arrived in a weakly condi- 

 tion, and all efforts to save it proved fruitless. In 1855, a plant 

 was received at the Botanic Garden at Leyden, from Dr. Siebold,* 

 but it was not till 1861, when Mr. J. G. Veitch, and later in the 

 same year, Mr. Kobert Fortune, sent plants and seeds to the Chelsea 

 and Ascot Nurseries respectively, that this fine Conifer became generally 

 distributed. As an ornamental tree for British gardens, it takes a 

 high rank ; its growth is at first rather slow, but when established 

 in a good moist loamy soil, and protected from piercing winds, its 



* Gardeners' Chronicle, 1855, p. 241. 



