THUYA ORIENTALIS, OR BIOTA 179 
Many others sing its, praises. White settlers, 
lumbermen, tree planters, tree writers, tree fanciers, 
and pheasant fanciers. 
Why, in the face of all these expressions of opinion 
from so many profound sources, it has not been more 
extensively planted in the woodlands of England, we 
cannot pretend to explain or understand. Perhaps 
in some future or more philosophical age it will come 
into its kingdom of appreciation. 
As a timber tree we have very little to recount of 
the character received of the Occidentalis. To sum 
up its virtues, it has been said that it makes good 
hedges, and this seems but damning with faint praise. 
The cones on the Occidentalis grow in such close 
communication that you can gather into the palm 
of your hand a bunch that contains more than a 
hundred of its cones. This gives sometimes a whity- 
yellow aspect to the tree that can be seen at a long 
distance. 
Like the Lawson Cypress it is polymorphous and 
has many shapes and varieties. How these mysteri- 
ous symptoms occur, whether transmitted by some 
far-away ancestor or some cross purposes, or what 
wild deviation from normal rules brought it about, 
has yet to be clearly explained. 
The T. Japonica goes rather one worse from the 
point of view of wood value. In its native country 
it has been known to make good roof shingles. 
TuuyaA ORIENTALIS, BioTsa, OR CHINESE ARBOR 
Vit#.—Perhaps a few points added to the abridged 
Table may help those for whom we write towards a 
surer acquaintance with this ornamental garden 
product from China, and its reticulated or graceful 
appearance of foliage. If this name Biota has any 
connection with the Greek word Aiwros—and there 
is nothing to suppose anything to the contrary—it 
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