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198 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
A shrub, with a straight trunk, bare of branches below. The branchlets, numerous,
long, flexile, cord-like, unbranched or only slightly branched, are produced in
irregular fascicles of 5 to 20 or more at irregular intervals along the branches. They
are slender and pendent, and bear leaves distantly placed in 4 rows in decussate pairs.
The leaves, broadly decurrent at the base and long acuminate at the apex, spread out
from the branchlets at an acute angle. Cones are occasionally borne, which are like
those of the type. 1 There is a specimen at Kew of a plant raised from seed of this
variety, which is ordinary Thuya orientalis. It was sent from the Botanic Garden at
Turin by Mr. Hanbury in 1860.
There are several forms of this variety, differing in habit and length of leaves;
in one the branchlets are tetragonal.
This shrub was first observed by Thunberg in Japan, and specimens were
collected near Yokohama by Maximowicz. It was also met with by Fortune in
China, and has been raised in Europe.
2. Var. decussata.
Retinospora juniperoides, Carribre, Conif. ed. 2, p. 140.
A low shrub, with erect stems and branches, bearing foliage like that of the
seedling. The leaves are in 4 rows in decussate pairs, spreading, and resembling
those of a juniper, except that the points are not prickly. They are greyish green
in summer, changing to brown in winter.
3. Var. Meldensis.
Biota Meldensis, Lawson, in Gordon, Pinetum, 3 7.
A small tree with ascending flexible branches. It is a transition form, bearing
acute acicular spreading leaves like that of the seedling, and occasionally leaves of
the adult character. The leaves are bluish green, changing to brown in the winter.
This plant was raised from seeds of Thuya orientalis gathered in the cemetery of
Trilbardoux near Meaux in France; and for a long time was supposed to be a cross
between Thuya orientalis tt\.&Juniperus virginiana.
4. Var. intermedia.
Biota orientalis intermedia, Carriere, Man. des PI. iv. 322.
This is also a transition form. It is a shrub with elongated pendent branchlets,
the ramifications of which arise from all sides of the axis, not remaining in one plane.
There are two kinds of leaves, those towards the ends of the branchlets resembling
the adult foliage of Thuya orientalis, while those on older parts are spreading,
arranged in decussate pairs, oval-lanceolate, decurrent at the base, and acute at the
apex. In Var. funiculata, if it is in reality distinguishable, there appears to be a
larger proportion of adult foliage.
Many other varieties have been described: some of peculiar habit, as gracilis
and pyramidalis, which are fastigiate ; others with coloured or variegated foliage, as
aurea, argenteo-variegata, aureo - variegata. Var. ericoides of this species closely
1 At Barton, a shrub of this variety produced cones, which had very long hooked processes on the scales (Bunbury,
Arboretum Notes, I S3)-
Thuya 199
resembles the variety of the same name belonging to Thuya occidentalis ; the latter
is slightly whiter on both surfaces of the leaves.
DISTRIBUTION, ETC.
Thuya orientalis occurs wild in the mountains of north China. It is common
in the hills west of Pekin, where Fortune 1 observed trees of a large size, 50 or 60
feet in height. Elsewhere in China it is only met with planted in cemeteries and
temple grounds. It has been known to the Chinese from the earliest times as the
Poh or Peh tree, and is mentioned in their classical books; it was planted around
the graves of feudal princes, and its wood was used for making the coffins of great
officials. The tree was introduced into Japan from China at an early period,
probably like so many other Chinese plants, by the Buddhist missionaries. Japanese
botanists are all agreed that it is not indigenous in Japan. Various other regions
have been mentioned as being the home of Thuya orientalis, as Siberia, Turkestan,
Himalayas, etc.; but specimens collected in these countries are undoubtedly from
cultivated trees. The tree is mentioned by Gmelin in his Flora Siberica, i . 182
(1747); but only as occurring between Kiachta and Peking. Ledebour 2 denies its
existence in any part of Siberia.
Thuya orientalis was first grown in Europe at Leyden, some time before 1737,
when Linnaeus 3 described the plant as Thuya strobilis uncinatis squamis reflexa
acuminatis. Royen, who sent a specimen to Linnaeus, mentions the species with
considerable details in his account 4 of the plants that were cultivated at that time in
the Botanic Garden at Leyden; but his promised account of the history of its
introduction apparently never was published. It is possible that it was raised from
seed sent home by the Dutch from Japan, as Kaempfer, who travelled in that
country from 1690 to 1692, collected specimens of Thuya orientalis which are still
preserved in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington.5 Seeds were also
soon afterwards sent to Paris by the missionaries in north China. 6 The earliest
account of it in England occurs in a letter dated February i, 1743, from the Duke
of Richmond to Collinson, as follows: " I am sorry to find by Miller that I am not
likely to have the Chinese Thuya. I own, if it belonged to anybody that would sell
it, I should be foolish enough to offer ten guineas for it, because it is the only one
in England that can match that which I have already." It was cultivated early by
Miller 7 in the Physic Garden at Chelsea.
Thuya orientalis never attains in this country any considerable dimensions. It
ripens good seed; and at Kew, on a wall near the Director's office, may be seen a
1 Yedo and Peking, 307, 382 (1863). Fortune supposed that the wild tree in north China was distinct from that
cultivated near Shanghai'; but there is no doubt that the trees, which attain a great size in the hills west of Peking, are ordinary
Thuya orientalis.
2 Comment, in Gmelini Fl. Sibericam, 60(1841). 3 Hart. Cliff. 449 (1737).
1 Flora Leydensis ProJromus, 8 7 (1740).
6 I have seen these specimens. See Salisbury, Coniferous Plants of Kaempfer, \r\Jour. Science and Arts, ii. 313 (1817).
Kaempfer does not mention the plant in his Amamitates Exotics.
0 See Miller, Card. Diet. ed. 6 (1752), and ed. 8 (1768), snt> " Thuya."
? Cf. Aiton, Hoi-t. Kem. iii. 371 (1789).