334 



THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



different botanists to different species. It is a low spread- 

 ing tree, wider than high, with small dark -green leaves 

 arranged in double rows. Supposed to be of garden origin. 

 A very ornamental plant and well suited for small gardens. 



T. baccata, Yew. — One of the hardiest and most useful 

 of evergreens, attaining great age, and the dimensions of 

 a small tree, but in the shrubby form exceedingly valu- 

 able for hedges and close screens. The varieties of it 

 are very numerous, and many are highly ornamental. 

 One of the most familiar is the narrow upright-growing 

 fastigiata, or Irish Yew; cheshuntcnsis is intermediate 

 in habit between the common and Irish; Dovastoni has 

 pendulous branchlets ; nana is a very dwarf - growing 

 variety; fructo-lutea bears yellow fruit; erccta and pyra- 

 midalis throw up numerous slender stems from the base. 

 To these we may add the variegated varieties aurea and 

 elegantissima, which are very effective in cool, half-shaded 

 places. There is also a variegated variety of the Irish 

 Yew, in which some of the leaves are striped with white. 

 Several other named varieties are grown in nurseries. 



T. canadensis, Ground Hemlock. — A straggling bush, 

 with shorter leaves than the common Yew, of which it is 

 perhaps a variety. North America, 1800. 



T. cuspidata. — A handsome bushy Yew, with dark- 

 green leaves of a tawny colour beneath and terminating 

 in a spiny point. Japan. 



Thuja (including Tliujopsis and Biota). — Evergreen 

 trees, quite hardy and very ornamental. They thrive in 

 almost any soil, provided it is moist and not too sandy. 

 Some of them change to brown during winter, regaining 

 their green colour in spring. 



T. dolabrata (Thujopsis dolabrata). — This forms a large 

 ornamental tree in Japan, and is hardy in the south of 

 England. It is readily recognized by its appressed, flat- 

 tened, hatchet-shaped shining leaves, with silvery lines 

 on the under side. Its mode of branching is also cjuite 

 peculiar. A cool soil appears to suit it best. The variety 

 variegata has the spray here and there coloured with 

 creamy yellow; and nana is of very dwarf habit. 1854. 

 T. hvtevirens, properly a variety of this, with slender 

 branches resembling those of a Lycopodium, is a beauti- 

 ful shrub, with a broad, densely conical habit, and tiny 

 leaves of a warm green. It is not, however, so robust 

 and hardy as T. dolabrata. Japan, 1861. 



T. gigantea (T. Memieath T. Lobbii) (fig. 414).— This 

 handsome fast-growing tree has crowded, slender branch- 

 lets ; leaves glossy-green above, silvery beneath, not 

 tubercled as in the other species. It is well fitted to 

 form a screen for more tender plants, and from its some- 

 what fastigiate growth may be planted closely in rows. 

 Rocky Mountains, 1854. 



T. japonica (1\ Staadishii). — An ornamental shrub 

 of erect conical habit, densely furnished with slender 

 branches, the leaves closely imbricated, and of a pale or 

 yellowish green. Japan, 1861. 



T. occidentalis, American Arbor- vitae. — This may be 

 known by the tubercles on the closely imbricated leaves. 

 It includes several forms, amongst them the Siberian 

 Arbor-vitae, T. o. sibirica (Wareana, tatarica, &c), which 

 forms a compact, conical, densely-branched bush, in which 

 the leaf tubercles are less prominent; plicata, remarkable 

 for the twisted branchlets being in pairs; pendula, which 

 has drooping branches with tufts of branchlets at their 

 extremities; cristata, a similar form; pumila, minima, and 

 compacta, dwarf bushy varieties; Vervdeneana, which 

 changes to a golden-brown in winter. North-eastern 

 America, 1596. 



T. orientalis (Biota orientalis). — Chinese Arbor-vitae. — 



Very variable, comprising many highly ornamental shrubs, 

 of which the following are some of the best : — aurea, the 

 golden Arbor-vitae; japonica, of conical outline, retaining 

 its bright-green all through the winter; elegantissima, of 

 erect slender habit, the young growth beautifully flushed 

 with yellow; compacta, small in stature, with slender 



Fig. 414.— Thuja gigantea. 



branchlets ; scrnperaurcscens, with the dwarf habit of 

 aurea, but retaining its yellow hue all the year round; 

 pendula [Jiagelliformis), having long pendulous flexible 

 branchlets; meldensis, a peculiar form, with linear spread- 

 ing leaves. The typical form is one of the handsomest 

 of the genus. China, 1752. 



Torreya. — A North American and East Asiatic genus 

 of shrubs or trees, with regular wh oiled branches, in 

 foliage resembling the Yews, to which they are closely 

 allied. The fruit, however, is much larger, and destitute 

 of the fleshy cup which characterizes the latter genus. 

 When bruised they emit a very powerful and unpleasant 

 odour, T. grandis excepted, and are called Stinking Yews 

 by the Americans. 



