Cryptomeria japonica yields in Japan a turpentine or semi-solid resin, named sugi-no-janai, which was shown at the Edinburgh Forestry Exhibition. This resin, which is very aromatic, is used as incense in Buddhist temples, and as a plaster for wounds and ulcers.
Cultivation
The tree ripens seeds in good summers in the south of England, which are easy to raise, and the seedlings grow rapidly after the first year. Seeds which I gathered in 1900 from a tree at Stratton Park, Hants, the seat of the Earl of Northbrook, and sowed in the open ground, germinated at the end of April, whilst others sown in a pot on Christmas Day and kept in a greenhouse, germinated on 17th April, and grew much better than those sown in the open. Some of the young trees planted out at two years old are now (January 1905) 3 to 4 feet high, and have not suffered at all from the spring frosts.[1]
The seedlings are easy to transplant, and might be raised in nurseries at a lower rate than many trees, though they should have some protection for the first two or three years, and if kept in pots the roots should not be allowed to become cramped, and if twisted round the bottom of the pot should be carefully spread when planted out. The tree may also be propagated from cuttings, and this plan is sometimes adopted in Japan, as being cheaper and quicker than raising seedlings, but except in the case of varieties, should not be adopted if tall, straight trees are desired. I have seen in the garden of Mr. Chambers at Grayswood, near Hazlemere, Sussex, a self-sown Cryptomeria which had germinated in a chink of the garden steps, and which is now growing at Colesborne, and I have no doubt that others might be found in suitable situations, as Mr. Bartlett has lately found a seedling at Pencarrow, Cornwall, growing at the base of the parent tree. Cryptomeria seems to be more adaptable to various kinds of soil than many exotic trees, and does not mind a moderate amount of lime, but loves a situation well sheltered from cold winds, and a soil deep enough and light enough to keep its roots moist during summer. I have not seen it grow well on heavy clay, where it suffers from spring frost. If timber and not ornament is the object, I should plant it about 10 feet apart, alternate with some fast-growing conifer, such as common larch or spruce, which might be cut out when the trees became too crowded.
Mayr[2] considers that in warm, damp parts of Europe the Cryptomeria may probably be planted profitably as a timber tree in sheltered valleys and in good soil, but recommends the mixture of other trees as nurses wherever the winter temperature is low, and says that alders are preferred by the Japanese for this purpose. He says that a plantation of this tree in East Friesland had attained 12 metres in height and 23 centimetres in diameter; and on the island of Mainau, on Lake Constance, he measured, in 1897, a tree which was 18 metres high and 40 centimetres in diameter.
