584 ZONES AND REGIONS [Pt. Ill, Sect. II 



precipitations, to the high temperature of the vegetative season, and, as 

 regards the underwood, to the openness of the leaf- canopy. 



The most prominent constituents of this deciduous forest are oaks, beeches, horn- 

 beams, maples, birches, horse-chestnuts, magnolias, araliads, walnuts, elms, Planera, 

 various Rosaceae, and in the moister places also ash-trees and alders in the fol- 

 lowing species :— Quercus serrata and O. dentata, O. crispula and Q. glandulifera, 

 Fagus Sieboldi and F. sylvatica, Castanea vulgaris, Aesculus turbinata, Cercidiphyl- 

 lum japonicum, Tilia cordata and T. mandschurica, Kalopanax ricinifolium, Magnolia 

 hypoleuca, Acer japonicum, A. pictum, and others, Carpinus laxiflora, C. cordata, 

 Planera Keaki. Ulmus campestris, U. montana, U. parvifolia, Prunus Pseudocerasus, 

 Perocaria rhoifolia, Fraxinus longicuspis, Betula alba. The diversity is still further 

 increased by the occurrence of several conifers, for instance Pinus densiflora, 

 Chamaec3'paris, Thuya, Sciadopitys, Tsuga. 



Lianes are apparently for the most part root-climbers : Schizophragma hydran- 

 geoides, Sieb. et Zucc, Hydrangea petiolaris, Sieb. et Zucc, and Rhus Toxicodendron, 

 var. radicans, Linn., exceed all others in size and abundance. 'Their stems thicker 

 than one's arm and even covered with moss creep up to a height of 25 meters on 

 trees and rocks. In well-lighted places the evergreen Euonymus radicans, Sieb., 

 climbs, and to some extent replaces, the less frequent ivy. Several magnolias and 

 Ternstroemiaceae exhibit a tendency to twine. The most highly developed climbing 

 plants of the Japanese forest are Wistaria chinensis, DC, up to 30 meters high, and 

 the Lardizabalaceae, in particular species of Akebia 1 . 



A rich collection of sub-trees and shrubs, such as Syringa, Euonymus, Viburnum, 

 Hamamelis, flourish in the usually loose cover; large climbing plants, such as Acti- 

 nidia, Vitis, Schizophragma, send up their stems, as thick as one's shin, to the top of 

 the trees, while huge plants of Petasites, Polygonum, Heracleum, and ferns spring 

 from the rich virgin soil, so that horse and rider disappear in the thickets they form. 



As in Europe, so in Japan, the cold-winter districts exhibit, in addition to the 

 broad-leaved forests, extensive forests of conifers, which, with corresponding varia- 

 tions in their systematic composition, near the sea-coasts, in the form of pine-woods 

 on the dunes and dry hillocks, represent the sole forest vegetation, and, further, here 

 and there invade the region of the broad-leaved forests, but attain their maximum 

 extent, in both a horizontal and vertical direction, outside the range of these. Of 

 these coniferous forests nothing is known beyond the names of their constituents ; 

 but it appears that the filling up of space by undeiwood and lianes, such as occurs 

 in the broad-leaved forests, is completely wanting here. 



iv. THE FORESTS OF T I ERR A DEL FUECO. 



In the southern hemisphere the forests of South- West Patagonia and 

 of Tierra del Fucgo (Figs. 328, 329) may be included among summer- 

 forests, not only because they are partly composed of the summer-green 

 Fagus antarctica. but also because the low temperatures of winter obviously 

 cause a marked winter season of rest. Beyond this we have no knowledge 

 of the oecology of these forests. 



1 Rein, op. cit., p. 166. 2 Mayr, II, p. 16. 



