viii INTRODUCTION 



portionately great and it is mainly these slopes that are clothed with conifers. 

 In few other countries are the forests of such supreme importance to the pros- 

 perity of the nation and no other people are such consumers of forest products as 

 the Japanese, as nearly all their buildings and most of their articles of domestic use 

 are entirely made of wood. The coniferous trees are the principal source of the 

 timber supply and the government forests now controlled by a good and increas- 

 ingly efficient forestry service are a source of very considerable revenue. As timber 

 trees the most valuable conifers are Chamaecyparis obtusa S. & Z., C. pisifera 

 S. & Z., Cryptomeria japonica D. Don, Tsuga Sieboldii Carr., Thujopsis dolabrata, 

 var. Hondai Mak., Sciadopitys verticillata S. & Z., Larix Kaempferi Sarg., Pinus 

 densiflora S. & Z., P. parviflora S. & Z., Picea jezo'ensis Carr. and Abies sachalinen- 

 sis Mast. 



Tree planting has been practised in Japan from time immemorial and planted 

 avenues and groves of Cryptomeria japonica D. Don and Pinus Thunbergii Pari, 

 are to-day common and impressive features of many popular and sacred places 

 in the land. In reafforestation the conifers which are now planted in quantity in 

 Japan are Cryptomeria japonica D. Don, Chamaecyparis obtusa S. & Z. and Larix 

 Kaempferi Sarg. In northern Hondo Thujopsis dolabrata, var. Hondai Mak. is 

 planted rather freely. For covering bare hills Pinus densiflora S. & Z. and by the 

 sea P. Thunbergii Pari, are extensively grown. On the Nemuro peninsula in 

 Hokkaido Larix dahurica, var. japonica Maxim, has been experimentally planted, 

 and in many parts of Hokkaido similar plantings of Norway Spruce (Picea Abies 

 Karst.) have been made. Near Aomori, in extreme northern Hondo, the Austrian 

 Pine (Pinus nigra Arn.) is being experimented with, but in its place the forestry 

 officials might well try P. resinosa Ait., the Red Pine of northeastern North 

 America. 



In North America experiments with Japanese conifers in forest planting have 

 scarcely commenced, but in parts of Europe they have been in progress for a num- 

 ber of years. In Great Britain the Japanese Larch (Larix Kaempferi Sarg.) is 

 by some planters regarded as a promising tree and with others Picea jezo'ensis 

 Carr. is in favor. I think that Chamaecyparis obtusa S. & Z. is worthy of exten- 

 sive trial in the wetter parts of Great Britain. 



In this country the conifers and taxads of Japan are valued for their orna- 

 mental qualities and no other country has contributed so many exotic plants of 

 this class to the gardens of eastern North America. In the Hunnewell Pinetum at 

 Wellesley, Massachusetts, founded in 1853 by Horatio Hollis Hunnewell, and on 

 the estate of the late Dr. George R. Hall at Bristol Neck, near Warren, Rhode 

 Island, there are growing some of the oldest and finest Japanese conifers in the 

 Eastern States. In the former are particularly good specimens of Torreya nuci- 

 fera S. & Z., Picea bicolor Mayr, Abies homolepis S. & Z., A. Veitchii Lindl., Thuja 

 Standishii Carr., Chamaecyparis pisifera, var. plumosa Beissn. and C. pisifera, var. 

 squarrosa Beissn. On the Hall estate there is a very large bush of Taxus cuspidata 

 S. & Z., and tall, handsome trees of Pinus koraiensis S. & Z., P. densiflora S. & Z., 

 Picea polita Carr., P. jezo'ensis Carr., Abies firma S. & Z. and Chamaecyparis obtusa 

 S. & Z. Dr. Hall planted these trees about 1870, and most if not all of them had 

 been brought from Japan by him to the nursery of Samuel Parsons at Flushing, 

 Long Island, in March 1862. 



