Addisonia 45 



(Plate 103) 



CALLICARPA JAPONICA 



Japanese Callicarpa 



Native of Japan 

 Family Verbena cE as Vervain Family 



Callicarpa japonica Thunb. Fl. Jap. 60. 1784. 



A shrub up to five feet tall, the purplish young branches and di- 

 visions of the inflorescence stellate-pubescent, the hairs on the 

 former early deciduous. The leaves are opposite and with petioles 

 a quarter inch long or less. The blades are elliptic, acute at the 

 base and acuminate at the apex into a long point, and are glabrous 

 on both surfaces; they measure up to three inches long and an inch 

 and a half wide, and on the new vigorous shoots they are often larger; 

 the margins are commonly entire at the base, becoming serrate 

 above, the long apex usually however without teeth. The flowers 

 are generally rose-pink, on short pedicels, and are borne rather 

 numerously in axillary cymose clusters. The calyx is short, its 

 teeth short and rounded. The bell-shaped corolla is about an 

 eighth of an inch long, its four spreading lobes rounded. The 

 stamens are much exserted from the corolla and bear bright yellow 

 anthers. The fruit is an eighth to three sixteenths of an inch in 

 diameter and of a bright violet color. 



A most desirable shrub on account of the unusual color of its 

 fruit which is borne in great abundance. It is found wild in the 

 mountains of Japan in wooded areas. It thrives in the latitude of 

 New York City, and is rarely damaged by cold. If, however, it is 

 injured during the winter it sends up in the spring new shoots from 

 the root which flower and bear fruit the same year. It may be 

 readily propagated by seeds, in spring or summer by greenwood 

 cuttings under glass, and by hardwood cuttings and by layers. 

 The specimen from which the illustration was prepared has been 

 in the collections of the New York Botanical Garden since 1895. 



Callicarpa is found in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, 

 Austraha, the islands of the Pacific, and in North and Central 

 America. Its known species are about thirty-five, of which one is 

 Callicarpa americana, a native of the southeastern United States, 

 where it is known as French mulberry. 



George V. Nash 



Explanation op Plat^. Fig. 1. — Fruiting branch. Fig. 2. — Flowers. 

 Fig. 3.— Flower, X 4. 



