A. FIRMA, HOMOLEPIS, BRACHYPHYLLA = 79 
dulating depression that we are calling notched or 
emarginate—has also corrugated or fissured shoots 
with pubescence in their grooves ; has also longer, 
thicker, broader leaves, of a lighter, almost yellow- 
grass-green colour, the Anglo-Saxon representative | 
(A. Pectinata), on the other hand, has less acutely 
notched or emarginate tops to leaf, of smaller size 
and dark-green colour, with pubescence scattered 
indiscriminately upon its smooth shoots. 
From these more nearly allied similarities, the A. 
Brachyphylla and Homolepis—which we will treat 
here, for the time being, as one and the same, or in 
inseparable Siamese-twin relationship—the A. Firma 
perhaps differs less, but very sufficiently, when we 
start to sum up his points. 
The A. Firma, as we have said, has pubescence in 
the grooves of his corrugated shoots, whereas the 
Brachyphylla-cum-Homolepis is devoid of anything 
of the sort. The leaves of the latter display very 
bright’ and conspicuous stomata on one side of the 
leaf, if not—and we say it with hesitancy, because it 
is not authoritatively admitted—occasionally a faint 
tracing of broken bands of stomata upon the other 
and upper-lying side. The stomata on the A. Firma, 
as the moon to the sun, are comparatively very dull 
affairs. They consist of two murky inconspicuous 
bands on one surface. 
Cones received from Japan manifest clear differ- 
ences. Those of the A. Firma are of more rotund 
and stumpy-looking proportions, larger at the base 
than the top, while the cones of the Brachyphylla | 
are of a uniform, cylindrical, more elongated shape. 
A few cones have appeared with us here and there, 
and in places the number of which you could count 
on one man’s fingers, but, in a general way and for 
the most part, instituting a hunt for them in England 
would be a vain quest, with little more chance of a 
