450 Contfere—Retinospora. 
These shrubs are included under the genus Chamecyparis 
by some writers. Some of the forms described as species 
are probably not entitled to that rank. They are all from 
Japan. 
1. R. pisifera.—A small tree with very slender feathery 
branchlets and scale-like very acute imbricate slightly spreading 
leaves of a yellowish-green tinge, glaucous beneath. Fruit 
very small, about as large as a medium pea. This is a very 
distinct shrub of somewhat irregular habit, and it appears to 
be quite hardy in the South of England. There is a variety 
awrea with gold and green variegated foliage, and a variety 
argéntea with silvery foliage. 
2. R. obtiisa.—A very beautiful species, forming a tree of 60 
to 100 feet in Japan. Young plants of it are densely branched 
shrubs with closely imbricated decurrent obtuse tubercled leaves 
of a deep vivid green, silvery below or in shady places. Fruit 
larger than in the last. A very desirable hardy shrub. Jt. lyco- 
podiordes is said to be a variety of this in which some of the 
leaves are subulate and spreading. There are also the varieties 
awrea and argéntea with gold and silver variegated foliage; and 
a miniature form called pygmea, syn. Thuja pygmea. 
R. ericoules, syn. Cupréssus ericoides, a well-known com- 
pact conical dwarf bush, and the first of the genus cultivated 
in this country, is considered by some as the primordial form of 
R. obtusa, and by others it is referred to R. leptoclida. In 
this all the leaves are linear and spreading, densely arranged in 
four ranks on the slender branchlets, somewhat rigid and acute, 
bright green above and glaucous beneath, assuming a ruddy 
tint in winter. It grows from 2 to 4 feet high. 
3. R. plumdsa.—The varieties ranged under this name are 
exceedingly beautiful dwarf shrubs with very dense slender 
flexible feathery branchlets dotted with acicular more or less 
spreading leaves. The one called argénteo-variegata resembles 
ericoides in its foliage, except that it is soft, silvery and pale 
green; but the lranches are less regular, and the branchlets 
slenderer and flexible. Probably this and the other varieties 
under this name belong to some of the other species. 
4. R. squarrosa.—A dwarf spherical shrub with slender 
drooping branches and minute imbricate scale-like foliage of a 
silvery green. It is reported as being rather tender. 
R. leptoclidu, syn. R. squarrésa leptoclada, is a more erect- 
