CUPR. OBTUSA AND THYOIDES 173 
halo about it, since it is the sacred tree of Shinto 
worship. 
It is in great request for building. purposes, and 
temples are made of it. It makes excellent panelling, 
and shows a very good figure. It takes to lacquering 
well by reason of its fine grain, and is much used for 
this treatment. It is well known to us here by the 
little, contorted, dwarf-grown Japanese cultivated 
specimens that so many of us have been induced to 
buy for curiosity’s sake, and we hope this short 
account of its career will convince readers that we are 
discussing a tree of no ordinary interest or merit. 
It, too, has its varieties, and one called Tetragona 
Aurea displays great garden merit. We have in our 
mind two planted by Mr. E. Miller Mundy at Shipley, 
in Derbyshire. They make a particularly picturesque 
show in those garden grounds. In thirty years they 
have only grown 10 ft. 6 in., while the one at Castle- 
welan contrived only 5 ft. in twenty years—an 
increase of development which seems more on a par 
with the leisurely growth of a geological tertiary 
formation than what we would expect from an 
ascendant tree. 
This compactness and density of growth absolve 
them to some extent from wrong-doing in their 
deficiency to rise to greater heights. 
Wanting the sun, why does the caltha fade ? 
Why does the cypress flourish in the shade ? 
M. Prior, 
The C. TuyoipEs remains alone of this Group A 
now unmentioned. It was introduced in 1736, but has 
never got a hold in our English climate and estima- 
tion, in spite of its many natural fascinations. Either 
the swamps where it was placed proved too cold for 
it, or the summer is not warm enough, or we have 
not found the exact spot of the judicious mixture 
