12 THREE NEW PLANT INTRODUCTIONS. 



stems, broad, light-green leaves, and delicate yellow flowers which are 

 borne in heads. Its forks are always composed of three branches 

 instead of two, as is common with other shrubs, and this character 

 alone distinguishes it from an} r common shrub in cultivation. It is 

 sometimes grown in Japan for its decorative } T ellow flowers alone. 

 The Marquis Matsudaira, formerly one of the feudal lords of the 

 country, has it planted inside his castle walls at Fukuias an ornamental 

 plant. Scarcely over 5 feet high, it has, as a result of its peculiar 

 branching habit, a characteristic vase form. (Pis. I and II, fig. 2.) 

 Owing to the fact that in the cultivation of the plant it is continually 

 pollarded near the surface of the ground, it is difficult to say what the 

 plant would grow into if left to itself. The light, brownish-gray 

 bark is thick and lace-like as a piece of tapa. and one can easily spread 

 a bit of it out with the fingers into a web-like, rough fabric. The 

 small fruits are borne in clusters and are about a quarter of an inch 

 long. Each fruit contains, inside the thin layer of flesh, a shiny black, 

 sharp-pointed seed, with a thin shell and milk-white contents. 



In the provinces of Shizuoka, Nogano, and Fattori are quite exten- 

 sive plantations of mitsumata, and it is said that the areas under 

 cultivation are steadily increasing. As a rule, the plantations occiqyy 

 land w T hich is not fit for rice growing, such as hillsides too steep for 

 terracing and valleys too narrow to make rice culture practicable. 



Red or yellow clay of volcanic origin, mixed often with rocks and 

 coarse gravel, seems to suit the plant admirably. The hillside planta- 

 tions sometimes reach to the line of newly cut ciyptomeria forest, and 

 even cover the tops of the hills from which, many years before, the 

 timber had all been cut. Good drainage seems to be one necessary 

 requisite to the growth of the plant in the wet climate of Japan, but its 

 culture between the rice fields proves that it can stand heavy irrigation, 

 though a plant not well suited to withstand drought. 



THE CULTIVATION OF MITSUMATA. 



Early in June, in Japan, children not over 8 or 9 years old are sent 

 through the plantations with baskets to pick the ripe fruits of the 

 mitsumata. The plants produce seed sparingly, it is said, so that the 

 work of collection is much like picking wild blackberries or straw- 

 berries in America, but it is far more irksome for the children, for 

 instead of being palatable the thin-shelled seeds contain an exceedingly 

 acrid endosperm. 



The seeds, with their thin, green flesh, are spread out to weather 

 until the latter has rotted away, leaving the black seeds, which are 

 packed in a sack made from the double sheath of the native palm. 

 The meshes of this natural sack are fine enough to prevent the seeds 

 from falling out and still allow the air and moisture to enter. In this 

 form they are buried in a hole in the ground under the shelter of an 



