18 FOREST FLORA OF JAPAN. 



few feet high ; but I saw a specimen in the woods surrounding a temple near Nakatsu-gawa, 

 on the Nakasendo, which was fully thirty feet in height, with a well-formed trunk nearly a 

 foot in diameter. Eurya, although not particularly handsome, is interesting from the color of 

 the leaves, which are yellowish green on the upper surface and decidedly yellow below. 



Stuartia is represented in eastern America by two handsome shrubs, one an inhabitant of 

 the coast region of the south Atlantic states, and the other of the southern Alleghany Moun- 

 tains ; in Japan there are two and, perhaps, three species. Of these, Stuartia monadelpha, 

 which inhabits also central China, appears to be a southern plant only ; at any rate, I saw 

 nothing of it in Japan, nor of the little known Stuartia serrata of Maximowicz. The third 

 species, Stuartia Pseudo-Camellia, is common on the Hakone and Nikko Mountains between 

 2,000 and 3,000 feet elevation, where it is a most striking object from the peculiar appearance 

 of the bark ; this is light red, very smooth, and peels off in small flakes like that of the Crape 

 Myrtle (Lagerstrcemia) ; to this peculiarity it owes its common name, Saru-suberi, or Monkey- 

 slider. Stuartia Pseudo-Camellia is often a tree of considerable size ; on the shores of Lake 

 Chuzenji we measured a specimen whose trunk at three feet from the ground girted six feet, 

 and which was upward of fifty feet high ; and specimens nearly as large are common on the 

 road between Nikko and Chuzenji. The flowers of this tree, which resemble a single white 

 Camellia, are smaller and less beautiful than the flowers of our coast species, Stuartia Vir- 

 ginica, but they are larger than those of the second American species, Stuartia pentagyna, a 

 handsome plant, which is not made enough of in our northern gardens, where it is perfectly 

 hardy and one of the best of the summer-flowering shrubs. Stuartia Pseudo-Camellia was 

 sent to America nearly thirty years ago by the late Mr. Thomas Hogg, and it appears to have 

 flowered in the neighborhood of New York several years before it was known in Europe, 

 where of late it has attracted considerable attention. 1 In New England this Japanese species 

 appears perfectly hardy, and two years ago it flowered in the Arnold Arboretum. 



Stachyurus praecox, another Japanese member of this family, is still little known in our 

 gardens, although it was one of the plants sent by Mr. Hogg to New York soon after the 

 opening of Japan to foreign commerce. It appears hardy in the neighborhood of New York, 

 as there is at least one plant established in Prospect Park, on Long Island. In Japan Stachyu- 

 rus is exceedingly common in the mountain forests and at the sea-level from southern Yezo to 

 Kyushu, appearing as a tall graceful shrub, with thin semiscandent branches and ovate- 

 lanceolate acute leaves. In summer or early autumn it forms axillary spikes of flower-buds 

 two or three inches long, and in very early spring, before the appearance of the leaves, these 

 buds expand into bell-shaped pale yellow flowers ; these are not more than a third of an inch 

 long, but they are produced in great profusion, and as they appear so early in the season 

 Stachyurus will probably prove a popular plant if it is found to flourish in cultivation. The 

 genus is represented in central China and in the Himalaya Mountains with a second species 

 described as a small tree. 



The genus Actinidia, woody climbers of the Himalayas and eastern Asia, appears in Japan 

 in three species, of which two, at least, are exceedingly common and conspicuous features 

 of the mountain vegetation. Of these, the largest and most common, especially at the north, 

 1 See Rev. Hort. 1879, 430, t. Gard. Chron. ser. 4, iv. 188, f. 22. Bot. Mag. cxv. t. 7045. 



