﻿384 ON THE BOTANY OF JAPAN. 



Anacardiacece. It is well kno^vn that Japanese species of Rhus are of the Eastern 

 North American type. From a comparison of specimens, I suspect that Linnaeus 

 may have been nearer right than his successors, when he united our Poison Sumach 

 with that of Japan, under the name of Rhus Vernix. However that may be, I do not 

 hesitate to refer to our JR. Toxicodendron, var. radicans, specimens, in flower and with 

 young fruit, which Mr. Wright gathered at Hakodadi. Since R. diversiloba, Torr. & 

 Gray (R. lobata, Hook.), is no more than another form of the same species, this may- 

 be said to range from the Atlantic coast of America to Japan. 



Vitaceee. From a similar comjjarison of specimens, I venture even to refer the Vitis 

 Labrusca of Thuuberg {V. Thunhergii, Sieb. & Zucc.) to the Linnsean species of that 

 name, our own Fox Grape ; and I suspect that V. Indica and Bunge's V. ficifolia are 

 the same thing. This species does not occur in Western America. Nor does Am- 

 pelopsis Virginiaiia ; but Zuccarini indicates two species of this Eastern American 

 genus in Japan. 



Rhamnacece. Berchemia racemosa, Sieb. & Zucc, represents in Japan the B. voluhilis 

 of our Southern Atlantic States, as Rhanmus crenatus, Sieb. & Zucc. — apparently a 

 Frang^da — does our F. CaroUniana. But the Rhamnus which Wright brought from 

 Japan (R. globosus, Bunge? Sieb. & Zucc, and R. Davuricus, &c.) is probably only a 

 form of the European R. catharticus. 



Upon the Aquifoliacece, which are about as numerous in Japan as in the Atlantic 

 United States, there is no remark to make, except to note that the order is wanting 

 in the whole western part of North America. 



Celastracece. Thunberg has our Celastrus scandens (also wanting west of the Missis- 

 sippi valley) in his Flora of Japan, but afterwards distinguished the plant. The Jap- 

 anese species, which is probably C. articulatus, pmictatus, and striatus of Thunberg, is 

 a close congener of our own C. scandens. Euonymus Japonicus is of Eastern Asiatic 

 type. Mr. Wright also obtained what appears to be the Himalayan E. Hamiltonianus 

 (an analogue of our E. atrojmrpureiis, and of the scarcely different E. occidentalism 

 Nutt., the sole representative of the genus in Oregon and California) ; E. Sieboldianus, 

 which is closely allied both to E. Europceus and to E. Americanus ; and a species 

 which appears to be identical with E. latifolius, before unknown east of the Caucasian 

 district. 



Sapindacecc. The Staphylea Bumalda, which strictly represents both the European 

 and the Eastern North American species, makes however an approach in its fruit to the 

 related Japanese genus, Euscaphis. At Hakodadi, on the sides of mountains, ^sculus 

 ttirbinata of Blume was collected. This is a true Horse-Chestnut, although the j)etals 



