these the bracts, which are ordinarily completely coalesced with the fruit-scales, become detached from them towards the apex of the cone, and are scale-like in character, producing cladodes in their axils. (A.H.)
Shirasawa states that the tree grows wild in mixture with Adzes firma and Cupressus pisifera at 600 to 5000 feet in the forests of Kiso and Shinano. Matsumura adds Mt. Hoonokawa in Tosa.
According to Mayr, the tree is similar to the silver fir in its capacity for bearing shade ; but is extremely slow in growth, only attaining in Kiso, where the climate is favourable to it, a height of 30 feet in fifty years. Trees 110 feet in height and 2 feet in diameter average about 250 years old. Mayr gives a figure of two old trees, growing at Agematsu, which were nearly 120 feet in height and 4 feet in diameter; and this shows how the tree, even at an advanced age, preserves a narrow pyramidal form with an upright leader, without any sign of flattening of the crown.
I saw this tree in its native forest to the best advantage in the lovely valley of Atera, on the west side of the Kisogawa, below Agematsu, at from 2000 to 3000 feet elevation. Here it was scattered in a forest of mixed conifers and hardwoods, and seemed to grow only on rocky slopes and ridges, where its narrow-pointed top made it conspicuous. The seedlings were numerous in dense shade growing on a bed of humus, and those that I took up had long but scanty roots, running deep, but spreading little. Their growth was very slow, not more than 3 to 6 inches annually for the first twenty years at least. On a steep rocky hill above the forester’s house, at the end of the tramway which has been made up this valley, the largest trees were growing, mixed with Thujopsis, the undergrowth being very dense, and composed of Rhododendron, with Shortia uniflora spreading over the ground in great sheets. The largest that I was able to measure were 90 to 100 feet high and 9 to 10 feet in girth, one being 11 feet 9 inches at 5 feet from the ground. Plate 159a fairly represents the appearance of the tree here.
In the forest near Koyasan I saw it again, mixed with Cupressus obtusa, but not attaining so large a size, though it seemed that in the dense shade the seedlings of Sciadopitys were more numerous and vigorous. Though often planted in parks and temple gardens, I never saw any trees as fine as those figured by Mayr at Agematsu, and it is clear that shade, perfect drainage, and a rich forest soil are essential to this species.
According to Mayr, the wood is white in colour, the sapwood only 2⁄5 inch thick being like the heartwood. The wood is comparable to the best kind of spruce, and is soft and elastic. It is used in Japan for boat-building, making bath-tubs and casks, planking, etc.
Cultivation
Though this interesting tree has been planted in many places, yet it usually grows very slowly and seems to require a high summer temperature, with a warm and sheltered situation. Ripe seed was produced in Ireland at Castlewellan in 1900,
