34 FOREST FLORA OF JAPAN. 



supply of artificial light before the introduction of American and Russian petroleum, Rhus 

 succedanea is less interesting in flower, at least, than Rhus semialata ; it is a southern species, 

 still much cultivated on the southern islands, and in Tokyo seen only in gardens. In habit, 

 although it grows to a larger size, it much resembles our Stag-horn Sumach ; the leaflets are 

 narrower, the flowers are produced in slender few-flowered clusters pendulous in fruit ; and 

 the drupes covered with a thick coat of the pale waxy exudation, to which this species owes 

 its name and value, are much larger. Rhus succedanea will, no doubt, flourish in the south- 

 ern states, and it is not improbable that it will prove hardy as far north as Philadelphia ; it 

 will certainly never be grown, however, in the United States for the wax it might be made to 

 yield, and as an ornamental plant, while it is, of course, interesting, it is inferior to the Amer- 

 ican Sumachs. 



Rhus trichocarpa, which, so far as I know, is not in our gardens, should be cultivated for 

 the extraordinary beauty and brilliancy of the leaves in autumn, when they assume the 

 brightest scarlet and orange tints. It is a slender tree, sometimes twenty or twenty-five feet 

 high, and very common in the forests of Yezo and on the mountains of central Hondo. The 

 leaves are eighteen to twenty inches long, with dark red puberulous midribs and broadly 

 ovate long-pointed short-stalked membranaceous leaflets, slender panicles of flowers, which 

 open in July, and pendulous fruit-clusters, with large pale prickly drupes ripening in August 

 or early in September. Neither the flowers nor the fruit are attractive, and there is nothing 

 very distinct in the appearance of this tree, except in the autumn, when, however, it is so 

 beautiful that if it succeeds here I believe it will prove one of the best introductions of recent 

 years. 



Of the poisonous species of Rhus I did not see the pinnate-leaved Rhus sylvestris, which 

 is said to be a small shrub and a native of the southern part of the empire ; on the Hakone 

 Mountains, where it is reported to grow, I looked for it in vain ; but our Poison Ivy is one of 

 the common plants in all the central parts of Hondo and in Yezo, where it grows to its largest 

 size and climbs into the tops of the tallest trees. The leaves of the Japanese plant are larger 

 than they usually grow on the American form ; they are thicker, too, and more leathery, and 

 turn to even more brilliant autumn colors, often to deep shades of crimson, which are rarely 

 seen on this plant in America. In October no other vine is so handsome in Japan. 



Japan is remarkably poor in arborescent Leguminosse, with only three species in three 

 genera, while here in eastern America there are twenty species in a dozen genera. The best 

 known Japanese tree of the family is Albizzia Julibrissin, a small Mimosa-like tree which 

 grows from Persia to Japan, and through cultivation has become naturalized in our southern 

 Atlantic states and in most other warm temperate countries. Familiar now in this country is 

 Maackia Amurensis, which, introduced many years ago from the valley of the Amour, is now 

 sometimes cultivated in northern gardens. This little tree, which, under favorable conditions, 

 rises occasionally to the height of thirty or forty feet, is common in all the forest regions of 

 northern Japan, and is not rare on the mountains of central Hondo. The Japanese form 

 produces larger and more numerous flower-spikes and larger fruit than the mainland tree, as 

 we see it in this country ; and it is not improbable that it will prove a more desirable garden- 

 plant. In Yezo, the wood, which is hard, close-grained, and pale brown in color, is manufac- 

 tured into many small objects of domestic use, and is considered valuable. 



