80 FOREST FLORA OF JAPAN. 



The other Pines of Japan belong to the group in which the species produce their leaves in 

 clusters of fives. The largest and the most widely distributed is Pinus parviflora, a beautiful 

 small tree of high mountain forests, through which, at elevations over 5,000 feet above 

 the sea-level, it is found scattered, either singly or in small groves, sometimes growino- to 

 a height of sixty or seventy feet, although it is usually much smaller. In those parts of 

 Japan which we visited, it was most common and grew to the largest size on the slopes of 

 Mount Hakkoda, in northern Hondo, where its dark pyramidal heads of slender spreading 

 branches, rising above the forests of Oaks and Beeches, break the sky-line, just as its relative, 

 our eastern White Pine, raises its nobler head high above the Oak forests of New England. 

 The wood of Pinus parviflora is soft, straight-grained, light-colored, and of considerable value, 

 but so difficult to obtain that it is little known or used by the Japanese. This beautiful Pine 

 flourishes in our gardens, where it appears to be perfectly at home, and where it grows rapidly 

 and every year covers itself with cones. 



In southern Yezo, a second species of the same group, Pinus pentaphylla, has been distin- 

 guished by Mayr. This is an exceedingly rare tree, found in a few isolated situations, and 

 distinguished from Pinus parviflora by its longer cones and stouter leaves. We saw only a 

 cultivated tree at the hot springs of Kakumi, near the shore of Volcano Bay, being prevented 

 by bad weather from reaching a small grove of these trees growing on the mountains in the 

 neighborhood. This Pine has not been introduced into our gardens, where it may be expected 

 to flourish. 



The fifth Japanese Pine is interesting from the fact that it is the only Japanese Conifer 

 which grows naturally in North America. It is the Pinus pumila of Kegel, a species so similar 

 to the Stone Pine of Europe that it has been considered by many authors a variety of that 

 tree. We saw it only on the summit of Mount Hakkoda, where it forms, at 6,000 feet above 

 the sea-level, impenetrable thickets a few feet in height and hundreds of acres in extent ; 

 it occurs on the summits of some of the high mountains of Yezo, ranges north through 

 Saghalin and eastern Manchuria to Kamtschatka, and by the Kurile Islands reaches those of 

 the Alaska coast. 



Of Spruces, there appear to be four species in Japan, where, except, perhaps, in some 

 parts of Yezo, they are exceedingly rare. The first, Picea polita, we saw only in two or three 

 individuals in the Nikko Mountains, on the hills below Lake Chuzenji. The trees were small, 

 much torn and stunted by the wind, and of such a miserable appearance that it was difficult to 

 realize that the young trees in perfect health and beauty which decorate our gardens belonged 

 to the same species. For the second Spruce of the mountain forests of central Hondo, to 

 which it appears to be confined, Mayr proposes the name of Picea bicolor, this specific name 

 having, he finds, been first used by Maximowicz for this tree. This is the beautiful Spruce 

 with blue-green leaves, silvery white on the under surface, which is usually cultivated under 

 the name of Picea Alcockiana, and which is easily distinguished in the spring by the bright 

 red color of the young shoots. 



It is not my purpose to discuss here the synonymy of the Japanese Firs and Spruces, upon 

 which such a mass of names have been heaped in almost hopeless confusion, that only a 

 critical examination of all the specimens which have been studied by European botanists can 



