the island of Chusan, off the coast of Chekiang. His specimens, three in number, are preserved in the British Museum, and a branch with cones was figured both by Petiver[1] and Plukenet.[2] A few years previously, probably in 1692, it had been found in Japan by Kaempfer,[3] whose specimen also is kept in the British Museum; and Thunberg[4] obtained specimens in Japan, the material on which Don founded his description of the genus. It was collected in China at different times by Sonnerat,[5] Millett,[6] and Sir Everard Home;[7] but we owe to Fortune the only account of importance of the tree in the wild state in China.
Fortune[8] saw the tree for the first time in the plain of Shanghai in 1843, where it is planted in cemeteries and temple-grounds, and grows to a great size, the poles which are set up in front of temples and mandarins' offices being often of Cryptomeria. In 1844 he found it growing wild in the mountains south-west of Ningpo, where it forms dense woods with Cunninghamia and other trees. It is met with in the Chekiang mountains even at high elevations—the finest specimens seen by Fortune occurring in the Bohea hills, which he crossed in 1849. He was particularly struck with a fine solitary tree, at least 120 feet in height, which stood near the gate in the pass of the high range which separates the Chekiang and the Fukien provinces. At Ningpo the junks are mostly built of the timber of this tree.
Cryptomeria was also collected by Swinhoe[9] in the country inland from Amoy, and by Pere David in the interior of Fukien, where, he says,[10] it is a beautiful tree, becoming rare in the wild state, but existing still in the mountains at moderate elevations.
Specimens[11] have been collected in other parts of China, but always, I believe, from planted trees. In Yunnan I only met with two trees, one (18 feet in girth) near a temple, and the other near a village. Cryptomeria apparently only occurs wild in China in the mountains of the Chekiang and Fokien provinces, between 25° and 29° N. lat., but may be found elsewhere when the interior of the country is better explored. In its native home in China the tree is subject to severe cold in winter, but the spring arrives suddenly with no late frosts, and the summer is much warmer than in England. In China the tree is called kuan-yin-sha ("goddess of mercy fir") in Yunnan, kung-ch'io-sung ("peacock-pine") in Szechuan, and sha ("fir") simply in Chekiang, where it shares the name with Cunninghamia, the timber of both trees being much used in the construction of houses and boats.
Cryptomeria in Japan
Both from an ornamental and economic point of view this is the most important
- ↑ Petiver, Gazophylacium Nature et Artis (1702), tab. 6, fig. 3, "Cupressus chusanensis, Abietis folio, from Chusan"; and Phil. Trans, xxiii. (1703), p. 1421, No. 70.
- ↑ Plukenet, Amaltheum Botanicum (1705), text 69, tab. 386, fig. 3.
- ↑ Amœnitates Exoticæ (1722) p. 883. Kaempfer's figure is published in Icon. Kaempf. (1791), t. 48.
- ↑ Flora Japonica, 265 (1784).
- ↑ In 1776. Lamarck, Ency. Bot. ii. 244.
- ↑ Collected at Macao, where the tree is only planted. Hook, Ic. Plant, vii. t. 668 (1844).
- ↑ Sir Everard Home collected specimens (British Museum and Kew) in Chusan and near Woosung, and his notes say "from trees near tombs and joss-houses."
- ↑ Fortune, Residence among the Chinese (1857), pp. 145, 184, 189, 256, 277, 412.
- ↑ Specimen at Kew.
- ↑ Plantæ Davidianæ, i. 291 (1884).
- ↑ By Anderson, near Momien in Yunnan, and by Dr. Faber, on Mount Omei in Szechuan.
