574 EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 
Flushing. In Japan, on the mountains of the island of Nippon, it 
is a grand forest tree, from seventy to one hundred feet high, with 
a straight trunk from three to five feet in diameter. Its Japan- 
ese name signifies “tree of the sun.” The plants in the nursery 
have a free, spreading growth, like red cedars, growing in strong 
soils, with foliage resembling that of the arbor-vitaes. The massy 
character of the foliage, and the free spreading growth, so rare 
among the arbor-vitaes, suggest that this tree, if its hardiness is 
established, is likely to take a conspicuous place among popular 
evergreens. The leaves have a warm green color, which they are 
said to retain throughout the winter. The twigs have a reddish 
color. 
The Golden Retinispora. R. pisif era aurea. — A smaller and 
slenderer tree than the preceding, also from Japan, just introduced, 
and said to be “promising.” Sargent marks it for us as “one of 
the most beautiful of trees,” and all those who have it on trial 
agree in considering it uncommonly beautiful and probably hardy. 
THE YEW FAMILY. 
Taxus, Cephalotaxus, Torreya., and Podocarpiis. 
Whatever legendary and poetical interests are associated with 
the yews of the mother country, seem unlikely to be maintained 
in the United States. The islands of Britain have a climate pe- 
culiarly adapted to this tree. They there become trees with massive 
trunks and noble heads. Though quite a number of species are suf- 
ficiently hardy for general cultivation with us, and are among the 
most interesting of small evergreens, they cannot equal their pro- 
totypes in England, nor their rivals among those species for which 
our climate is best suited. There are specimens in England eight 
hundred years old, with trunks eight feet in diameter. The yews 
are of slow growth, but great duration, and generally noted for 
dark and dense foliage, resembling that of the firs, but the leaves 
are longer and thicker. A deep, moist, clayey soil, and partial 
shade, suit the tree best. The foliage loses the purity of its green, 
and becomes rusty when fully exposed to our summer sun. 
