6. Var spiralis.[1]—A slender shrub, with leaves strongly falcate and twisted spirally by their free ends around the branchlets, which assume in consequence a corkscrew-like appearance. A specimen of this at Kew also bears some branchlets with normal leaves.
7. Var. dacrydioides.[2]—Leaves very closely set and very short (about ¼ inch long) There is a specimen at Kew of this form, gathered by Maries and said to be wild. It is probably a depauperate form, originating in rocky, barren, exposed ground.
8. Var. nana.[3]—A dwarf, procumbent, dense, spreading shrub, with short acicular needles, closely set on the rigid branchlets and directed outwards. This form attains only 3 or 4 feet in height, and very often bears monstrous fasciated twigs.
9. Some slightly variegated forms of Cryptomeria have appeared in cultivation; in one the tips of the branchlets are whitish; in another the leaves are yellowish in colour.
10. Var. elegans, Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xviii. 497 (1881); Cryptomeria elegans, Veitch, ex Henkel und Hochstetter, Synopsis der Nadelhölzer, 269 (1865).—A fixed seedling form. The juvenile foliage is retained throughout the life of the tree, which bears the same relation to the type as Retinospora squarrosa does to Cupressus pisifera. It agrees in cones and in the anatomical structure of the leaves with the typical form.
In habit this is rather a large bush than a tree. The leaves, while spirally arranged on the shoot as in the ordinary form, spread outwards and are not directed upwards. They are decurrent on the branchlets, linear, flattened, curving downwards, sharppointed, grooved on the middle on both surfaces, and are light green in colour, changing in late autumn and winter to a reddish bronze colour, which gives the tree a remarkable and handsome appearance. There is a dwarf form of this variety, Cryptomeria elegans nana, which is a low, dense bush with crowded leaves, changing in colour in the autumn like the ordinary variety, except that the pendulous tips of the branchlets remain green.
The origin of this remarkable form is obscure. In Japan, according to Siebold, it is known as to-sugi, i.e. "Chinese Cryptomeria," and is said to have been introduced from China. Kaempfer mentions a nankin-sugi, introduced into Japan from China, cultivated on account of its beauty, which is possibly this variety.
Cryptomeria elegans was introduced from Japan to England in 1861 by John Gould Veitch.[4] The largest specimen we know occurs at Fota; it is 42 feet high by 4 feet 9 inches in girth. In Cornwall this variety grows to a great size, the tops of the trees often bending down under the weight of their branches and foliage; and the outer lower branches commonly take root and grow into independent trees, which form a colony round the parent stem.[5]
At Tregothnan there is a very fine example (Plate 37) which measures 35 feet by 4 feet 6 inches, and at Killerton there is another almost equal in size. In the
