GYMNOSPERAI^. 



87 



than is usually the case with the Coniferse of so late an age as the Eocene. The reason 

 of this exceptional differentiation may be looked for, it appears to me, in the fact that the 

 single existing species of Cryptomeria has been cultivated unremittingly in Japan, 

 perhaps for many centuries, with a view to produce sports and varieties, which were held 

 in religions esteem. One well-known variety in cultivation, C. elegans, has foliage which 

 departs widely from the original type, while another, C. araucaroides, approaches the 

 fossil closely. The Cryptomeria of our gardens is a variety introduced by Mr. Fortune 

 from seed gathered in the north of China and the Isle of Chousan, and has leaves nearly 

 twice as long and more closely pressed to the branches than the true stock of Japan. 

 Plants transplanted to hills in Java, under similar conditions of soil and temperature, 

 have rapidly degenerated, and approach the fossil type of foliage. The excessive 

 fimbriation or bractation, which masks the structure of the cones, has probably been 

 increased by artificial means, for apparently starved cones in England much more nearly 

 approach the fossil, and the frequent tendency of the axes to penetrate through them 

 and to foliate is additional evidence that they have become somewhat abnormal under 

 cultivation. All the genera of the Taxodiese have been met with in some abundance in 

 Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks except Cryptomeria, and it does not seem unreasonable to 

 suppose that the changes brought about by ages of cultivation have rendered its 

 recognition difficult. 



There can thus be little doubt that our Conifer is the wild stock of the considerably- 

 modified Cryptomeria of Japan, and that this then bore a greater resemblance to the 

 nearly-allied Taxodimn. heteropliyllum than it does at present. It still loves a basaltic 

 and humid soil, and under such conditions forms vast forests ; at least a tenth part of 

 those which clothe the three principal isles of Japan, from 500 to 1200 feet above the 

 sea, being formed of this tree. Its fine pyramidal crests and deep green contrast with 

 the Laurels and Bamboos, and give a peculiar and characteristic aspect to the wooded 

 regions of Eastern and Southern Japan. In more western and northern latitudes, where 

 leafy evergreens are rarer, it combines with the AbietinccB and Cupressinese and ever- 

 green Oaks to impart a freshness to the forest vegetation during winter.^ It reaches a 

 height of 130 feet, and occasionally rivals its companion Cypress in girth, and is a 

 majestic and graceful tree, strongly recalling Araucaria Cmminghami. 



The fruits of this species exceed in abundance those of the associated Cupressus, and 

 indeed all other fossils at Ballypalady. Unlike the Cypress, it abounds under the bauxite, 

 as we might expect on the supposition that these contain the spoils of lower land, for it 

 now ranges to within 500 feet of the sea-level, while the Cypress is a more purely Alpine tree. 

 It, or something like it, has also been found in Mull and Canna, and seems everywhere 

 present among the Arctic Floras described by Heer, though referred to the genus 

 Sequoia in his works. I have little hesitation in also referring the so-called Sequoia 

 Sternberyii of Monte Promina to it, as I have specimens of foliage which are not only 



' Siebold, ' Flora Japoiiica,' 1835. 



