INTR OD UCTION. 5 



the trees preserved or planted in the temple grounds in the neighborhood of towns, it would 

 be impossible to obtain any idea at all of many of the Japanese trees. But, fortunately, 

 for nearly two thousand years the priests of Buddha have planted and replanted trees about 

 their temples, which are often surrounded by what now appear to be natural woods, as no 

 tree is ever cut and no attempt is made to clear up the undergrowth. These groves are 

 sometimes of considerable extent, and contain noble trees, Japanese and Chinese, which give 

 some idea of what the inhabitants of the forests of Japan were before the land was cleared 

 for agriculture. 



The floras of Japan and eastern America have, it is true, some curious features in common, 

 and the presence in the two regions of certain types not found elsewhere show their relation- 

 ship. But these plants are usually small, and are rare or grow only on the high mountains. 

 Diphylleia, Buckleya, Epigsea, and Shortia show the common origin of the two floras ; but 

 these are rare plants in Japan, as they are in America, with the exception of Epigsea, and 

 probably not one traveler in ten thousand has ever seen them, while the chief elements of the 

 forest flora of northern Japan, the only part of the empire where, as has already been said, 

 comparison is possible, those which all travelers notice, do not recall America so much, 

 perhaps, as they do Siberia and Europe. 



The broad-leaved Black Oaks, which form the most distinct and conspicuous feature in all 

 the forests of eastern America, are entirely absent from Japan, and the deciduous-leaved 

 White Oaks, which, in Japan, constitute a large part of the forest-growth of the north, are of 

 the European and not of the American type, with the exception of Quercus dentata, which 

 has no related species in America. The Chestnut Oaks, which are common and conspicuous, 

 both in the northern and southern parts of eastern America, do not occur in Japan, and the 

 Evergreen Oaks, which abound in the southern part of that empire, where they are more 

 common than any other group of trees, are Asiatic and not American in their relationships. 



Many of our most familiar American trees are absent from the forests of Japan. The 

 Tulip-tree, the Pawpaw or Asimina, the Ptelea or Hop-tree, the Loblolly Bay or Gordonia, 

 the Cyrilla and the Cliftonia, the Plum-trees, which abound here in many forms, the Texas 

 Buckeye (Ungnadia), the Mesquite, the Locusts, the Cladrastis or Virgilia, the Kentucky 

 Coffee-tree or Gymnocladus, the Liquidambar, the Tupelos, the Sourwood or Oxydendrum, the 

 Osage Orange, the Kalmia, the Sassafras, the Persea or Red Bay, the Planera or Water Elm, 

 the Plane-tree, the Black Walnut, the Hickories, and the deciduous Cypress all common 

 and conspicuous in our forests are not found in Japan. Cratsegus, with a dozen species, 

 is one of the features of the forest flora of eastern America, while in Japan the genus is repre- 

 sented by a single species, confined to the northern part of the empire, and nowhere very 

 common. The Japanese Maples, with the exception of Acer pictum, which is not unlike our 

 Sugar Maple, have no close resemblance or relationship with the eastern American species ; 

 the Beech and the Chestnut are European, and not American ; the Birches, with one excep- 

 tion, are of the Old World type, as are the Lindens, Ashes, Willows, the Celtis, the Alders, 

 Poplars, and Larches. 1 



1 Of the arborescent genera of Japan, thirty are represented in Europe, and all of these, with the exception of Buxus, are 

 also found in eastern America. 



