76 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
X. On some Japanese and North American Trees suitable for 
growing in British Woodlands.| By H. J. Etwes, F.R.S., 
Colesborne, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. 
Having spent more than five months of last year in studying 
the forest trees and forest conditions of Japan and parts of 
North America, it has occurred to me that this Society might 
be interested to learn something about several kinds of trees 
worthy of being given a prominent place in the forestry of Great 
Britain. Although we know a good deal about them in a young 
state, I have long been doubtful of the wisdom of planting 
Japanese larch and Douglas fir as forest trees on a large scale, 
except under conditions rare in this country; and before embark- 
ing largely on what must for many years remain a doubtful 
speculation, it is of importance to know the conditions of soil 
and climate under which these trees grow naturally. I spent 
only seven weeks in Japan—far too short a time to enable me 
to see all that I should have wished to see; but the Japanese 
Government were good enough to send two of their forest 
officials, Messrs Shirasawa and Mochizuki, both of whom had 
studied in Germany, to accompany me to the most interesting 
forests of Northern and Central Japan, so that I was able to 
accomplish a great deal that I could not have done without 
their assistance. I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude to 
these gentlemen, and to the Japanese officials in general, for 
the great kindness they showed me everywhere; and I formed 
a very high opinion of the skill and ability with which the 
Japanese forests, both public and private, are generally 
managed. 
Though I had previously studied the fauna and flora of 
Japan, and read important works on the subject, especially 
Professor Sargent’s admirable book on the Forest Flora of Japan, 
I was astonished to find how different the forests were from 
what I had expected, and how much more the summer climate 
and vegetation of Japan resembled those of some parts of the 
Himalaya than anything I had seen in Europe, Northern Asia, 
or the United States. Without going into details, I will 
' Lecture delivered at the Annual General Meeting of the Society on roth 
February 1905. Those parts of Mr Elwes’ lecture have been omitted which 
were explanatory of the photographic pictures shown upon the screen, as the 
illustrations cannot be reproduced here.—Hon. Ep. 
