Chap. XXIII. 
CURIOUS PINE-TREE. 
377 
toise and another animal, which my guide in- 
formed me were placed there some two hundred 
years ago, by order of the reigning emperor, over 
the grave of 'one of his subjects, whom he “ de- 
lighted to honour.” I have remarked elsewhere 
that a tombstone placed upon a carved represen- 
tation of an animal of this kind is a sign of a royal 
gift. 
Near these royal tombstones I observed a species 
of Pine-tree, having a peculiar habit and most 
striking appearance. It had a thick trunk, which 
rose from the ground to the height of three or 
four feet only. At this point some eight or ten 
branches sprang out, not branching or bending in 
the usual way, but rising perpendicularly, as 
straight as a larch, to the height of 80 or 100 feet. 
The bark of the main-stem and the secondary 
stems was of a milky-white colour, peeling like 
that of the Arbutus, and the leaves, which were 
chiefly on the top of the tree, were of a lighter 
green than those of the common Pine. Altogether 
this tree had a very curious appearance, very 
symmetrical in form, and the different specimens 
which evidently occupied the most honourable 
places in the cemetery were as like one another 
as they could possibly be. 
In all my wanderings in India, China, or Japan, 
I had never seen a pine-tree like this one. What 
could it be ? — was it new ? — and had I at last found 
something to reward me for my journey to the far 
north ? I went up to a spot where two of these 
