into young trees, close to the parent stem. Coppice shoots are also produced freely from the stools in China, when the trees are felled.
Cunninghamia[1] was discovered in 1701 by J. Cunningham in the island of Chusan; and his specimens, preserved in the British Museum, were early described by Plukenet.[2] The first accurately scientific description, however, is due to Lambert, and was based on specimens brought home by Sir G. Staunton, who accompanied Lord Macartney's embassy to China in 1793.
The tree has been known to the Chinese from the most ancient times, being mentioned in their earliest classical writings. It is called sha, a name, however, which is often applied also to Cryptomeria and other conifers yielding valuable timber, It was introduced[3] by William Kerr from Canton into Kew Gardens in 1804; but no trees of that date now exist there. Probably most of the existing trees in England were raised from seed collected by Fortune about 1844.
Cunninghamia is widely spread throughout the central, western, and southern provinces of China, extending southwards from Szechwan, Hupeh, Kiangsi, and Kiangsu to Yunnan and Kwangtung. It is usually a tree of mountain valleys, requiring a hot summer and considerable humidity to thrive; and ranges in altitude from sea-level to 5000 feet, occurring in Central China below the zone, which, in the high mountains, is covered by silver fir and spruce. There appear to be large forests of it in the interior of Hunan and Fokien, judging from the vast quantities of its timber which are exported from there. In Fortune's time it was abundant on the islands of Chusan and Pootoo, but was rare in Hongkong, where the only wild trees of this species grew as isolated specimens in the Happy Valley. Fortune,[4] in 1849, passed through fine forests of Cunninghamia in the mountains of Northern Fokien, many of the trees being 80 feet in height, and perfectly straight; and he noticed variations in the tint of the foliage. He met with dense woods in the Snowy Valley and other parts of Chekiang, but the trees were usually young, and not remarkable for size.
Mr. E.H. Wilson informs me that there are magnificent forests of Cunninghamia in Western Szechwan. One which he specially noted in the Upper Ya Valley extended for fifty miles between 2000 and 5000 feet altitude, the best trees ranging from 100 to 150 feet in height, and from 15 to 18 feet in girth; and when growing in close stands, with straight stems clean to 4o feet or more, the branches above being short, slender, and horizontal. In the open the trees have much longer pendulous branches. The foliage is occasionally glaucous. Where trees had been cut down, new growth was being everywhere produced by shoots from the stools. Mr. Wilson mentions the common use of the timber in China for house-building purposes generally, and for the masts and planking of native craft. The bark is also used in the mountains for roofing houses. In the Chien Chang Valley in
- ↑ In a note in King's Survey of the Coasts of Australia, ii, 564 (1826), R. Brown states that he requested Richard to change the name Belis, given by Salisbury, into Cunninghamia, in honour of both J. Cunningham, the discoverer of the tree, and of the collector Allan Cunningham.
- ↑ Amaltheum Botanicum, i. t. 351, f 2. (1705).
- ↑ Aiton, Hortus Kewensis, v. 320 (1813).
- ↑ Wanderings in China, 379 (1847); Tea Countries, ii. 178, 212 (1853); Residence among the Chinese, 189, 277 (1857).
