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194 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
REMARKABLE TREES
Th^lya occidentalis never attains to a considerable size when planted in this
country. There is a specimen at White Knights, near Reading, of great age, which
is now dying at the top. According to the gardener there it has not made any
growth for the last thirty-five years. It measured in 1904, 41 feet in height by 4 feet
in girth. At Stratton Strawless, Norfolk, there is also a specimen of considerable
age, remarkable for the pendulous habit of the branches, which is 35 feet in height.
There are more large specimens at Belton Park than at any other place I know in
England, the largest I have measured being 41 feet by 3 feet 9 inches. Henry,
however, in 1904 measured one at Arley Castle as tall, which divides into three
stems near the ground, where it measures 7 feet 6 inches in girth. At Auchendrane,
Ayrshire, Renwick measured a tree in 1902 which, according to a specimen
procured by him in 1906, was Ttmya occidentalis—as 42 feet high by 6 feet 8 inches
in girth, with a bole of 12 feet.
It seems to be one of the best conifers for making shelter hedges in gardens,
as it stands clipping well, and for this purpose may be relied on to attain 15 to 20 feet
in height in any fair soil. As it grows slowly at first when raised from seed, it is
usually propagated by cuttings. (H. J. E.)
Thuya
THUYA JAPONICA, JAPANESE THUYA
Thuya japonica, Maximowicz, Mil. Biol. i. 26 (1866); Masters,/ra;-. Linn. Soc. (Hot.) xviii. 486 (1881),
and Card. Chron. xxi. 258, fig. 87 (1897); Revue Horticole, 1 896, p. 160 ; Kent, in Veitch's
Man. Conifera, 244 (1900); Shirasawa, Icon, des Essences forestibres du Japan, 2 8, t. xi. 18-34
(1900).
Thuya Standishii, Carriere, Traite Gen. Conif. 1 08 (1867).
Thuya gigantea, var. japonica, Franchet et Savatier, Enutn. PI. Jap. \. 469 (1875).
Thujopsis Standishii, Gordon, Pin. Suppl. 1 00 (1862).
A tree attaining, according to Shirasawa, a height of 90 feet in Japan, with a
tapering stem, open in habit as cultivated in England, and not forming such a dense
pyramid as Th^tya plicata. Bark of the trunk scaling off in very narrow longitudinal
papery strips. The bark commences to scale on young branches of less than a
half inch in diameter. The branches curve upwards towards their extremities.
The branch-systems, 3-4 pinnate, are disposed in horizontal planes, which droop
at their outer extremities. Primary axes terete, with leaves densely crowded, all
the four sets ending in short, rigid, thick, free points, glands being absent. The
leaves on the ultimate branchlets are obtuse, and not acutely pointed as in Thuya
plicata ; and glands may be present or absent on the flat leaves. The foliage is
light green above, while on the under surface there are whitish streaks, somewhat
triangular in outline, which exceed in area the greener parts.
Male flowers cylindrical, with 6 decussate pairs of stamens. The cones are
deflected, ovoid, and composed of 5 to 6 pairs of scales, of which the second and third
pairs are larger than the others and fertile. The scales are broadly oval, with a
rounded apex, from below which externally is given off a short, broad, triangular
process, projecting from the scale at right angles or nearly so. The seeds, three to
each fertile scale, and nearly equal to it in length, differ considerably from those of
Th^^ya plicata and Th^^ya occidentalis, the wing being narrow, not so scarious in
texture, entire, and not notched at the summit.
Fortune discovered Thiiya japonica in cultivation around Tokyo in 1860, and
sent home seeds of it to the nursery of Mr. Standish at Ascot, who distributed
plants under the name of Th^tjopsis Standishii. Maximowicz, who had also seen it
cultivated at Tokyo, gave the species its first authoritative name in 1861. Maries
found it growing wild on the mountains of Nikko, in central Japan, in 1877.
Sargent, 1 who, in company with James H. Veitch, met with a few solitary specimens
on the shores of Lake Yumoto in these mountains, at 4000 feet altitude, describes
it as a small pyramidal tree of 20 to 30 feet high, of open and graceful habit, with pale
green foliage and bright red bark. Shirasawa, however, states that it attains a height
of 90 feet, with a diameter of stem of nearly 6 feet; and that it grows in the central
chain of Hondo, in the mountains of Kaga, Hida, and Shinano, at elevations of
2000 to 6600 feet. The stem, according to Shirasawa, is often twisted, and gives
off great wide-spreading branches. (A. H.)
1 Garden and Forest, 1 893, p. 442, and 1897, p. 441.