CUNNINGHAMIA
- Cunninghamia, R. Brown, in Richard, Conif. 80, t. 18 (1826); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pl. iii. 435 (1880); Masters, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot) xxvii. 304, fig. 18 (1889), and xxx. 25 (1892).
- Belis,[1] Salisbury, Trans. Linn. Soc. viii. 315 (1807).
- Jacularia, Rafinesque, in Loudon, Gard. Mag. viii. 247 (18 32).
- Raxopitys, Nelson (Senilis), Pinaceæ, 97 (1866).
A genus, belonging to the Coniferæ, with only one known living species,[2] and doubtfully represented in the fossil state.[3]
Cunninghamia is considered by Bentham and Hooker, and by Masters, to be a member of the family Araucariez; but it is placed by Eichler[3] in Taxodineæ. Seward and Ford, who have lately published an exhaustive monograph[4] of Araucaria and its allied genus Agathis, agree with Eichler that it has no close relationship with those genera. It appears, however, to be a connecting link between the Araucariez and the Taxodineæ; and mainly differs from Araucaria, some species of which it closely resembles, in foliage, in having three ovules on the bract, and not one only, as in that genus.
The generic characters are given in the following detailed account of the species:—
CUNNINGHAMIA SINENSIS
- Cunninghamia sinensis, R. Brown, loc. cit. (1826); Lambert, Genus Pinus, ed. 2, t. 53 (1832); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2445 (1838); Murray, Pines and Firs of Japan, 116, figs. 216–224 (1863); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 292 (1900); Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japon, text 23, t. 9, ff. 1–24 (1900).
- Cunninghamia lanceolata, W.J. Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 2743 (1827).
- Pinus lanceolata, Lambert, Genus Pinus, ed. i, t. 34 (1803).
- Belis jaculifolia, Salisbury, loc. cit. 316 (1807).
- Belis lanceolata, Sweet, Hort. Brit. 475 (1830).
- ↑ This name, though the earliest, is not adopted on account of its close resemblance to the genus Bellis, used for the daisies.
- ↑ While the above was passing through the press, there has been received at Kew a specimen of a new species of Cunninghamia, lately discovered in the mountains of Formosa at 7000 feet altitude. This species, which will shortly be published by Mr. Hayata, differs from C. sinensis in having shorter leaves, acute and not acuminate at the apex. Mr. Hemsley is inclined to think that a specimen, preserved in the Herbarium, which was collected on Mt. Omei, in Western China, by Faber, is possibly a third distinct species.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Engler u. Prantl, Natur. Pflanzenfamil. ii. 85 (1889). Cunninghamites, an allied fossil genus, has been found in the Keuper and Chalk deposits in Saxony, Bohemia, Westphalia, Southern France, and Greenland. Cf. Schimper a. Schenck, Palæontologie, 283 (1890).
- ↑ The Araucarieæ: Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., vol. cviii. p. 308 (1906).
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