10 FOREST FLORA OF JAPAN. 



gradually narrowed below, and abruptly contracted at the apex into short broad points ; they 

 are pubescent on the lower surface at first, especially on the stout midribs and primary veins, 

 but at maturity are glabrous, or nearly so, and are bluish green, and rather lighter colored 

 on the lower than on the upper surface ; they are six or seven inches long, three or four 

 inches broad, rather conspicuously reticulate-veined, and are borne on stout petioles half an 

 inch to an inch and a half in length. The fruit is slender, four or five inches long, and is 

 often contorted or curved from the abortion of some of the seeds ; it is dark brown, the 

 carpels being conspicuously marked with pale dots. 



Magnolia Kobus is exceedingly common in the forests which clothe the hills in the neigh- 

 borhood of Sapporo, where it grows to a larger size than in any part of Japan which I visited ; 

 near the shores of Volcano Bay it occurs in low swampy ground and in the neighborhood of 

 streams, in situations very similar to those selected by Magnolia glauca in the United States. 

 On the main island Magnolia Kobus is much less common than it is in Hokkaido, and I only 

 met with it occasionally on the Hakone and Nikko Mountains at considerable elevations above 

 the sea. Tins handsome tree was introduced into the United States by Mr. Thomas Hogg, 

 and was distributed from the Parsons' Nurseries as Magnolia Thurberi, under the belief that 

 it was an undescribed species. In cultivation it does not flower freely in the young state, 

 although trees in Pennsylvania, and in the Arnold Arboretum, where it was raised from seed 

 sent from Sapporo fifteen years ago, have produced a few flowers. In New England Magnolia 

 Kobus is the hardiest, most vigorous, and most rapid growing of all Magnolias. 



I spent the 2d, and 3d of October in company with Mr. James Herbert Veitch and Mr. 

 Tokubuchi, an accomplished Japanese botanist, on Mount H'akkoda, an extinct volcano 6,000 

 feet high, which rises southeast and a few miles distant from Aomori, the most northern city 

 of the main island of Japan. Botanic-ally this was one of the most interesting excursions I 

 made in Japan, and we were able to gather the seeds of a number of plants that we did not 

 meet with elsewhere. On this mountain, in the very spot, perhaps, where Maries discovered 

 this fine tree, we found Abies Mariesii covered with its large purple cones ; and on the upper 

 slopes saw the dwarf Pinus pumila, forming almost impenetrable thickets five or six feet high 

 and many acres in area, and numerous alpine shrubs like Andromeda nana, Gaultheria pyro- 

 loides, Epig;ea Asiatica, Phyllodoce taxifolia, and Geum dryadoides. On this mountain, too, 

 we established the most northern recorded station in Asia of the Hemlock (Tsuga diversi- 

 folia) ; and near the base Ilex crenata, Ilex Sugeroki, a handsome evergreen species with 

 bright red fruit, the dwarf Ilex integra, var. leucoclada, and Daphniphyllum humile were 

 very common ; and here we were fortunate in finding good fruit and ripe seeds of Magnolia 

 salicifolia. 



On Mount Hakkoda Magnolia salicifolia (see Plate iv.) is a common plant between 2,000 

 and 3,000 feet above the sea-level. As it appears there it is a slender tree fifteen or twenty 

 feet high, with stems three or four inches thick, covered with pale smooth bark, and some- 

 times solitary, or more commonly in clusters of three or four. The branchlets are slender, and 

 light green at first, like those of Magnolia glauca, later growing darker, and in their third 

 year becoming dark reddish brown. The leaves are ovate, acute, gradually narrowed or 

 rarely rounded at the base, contracted into long slender points and sometimes slightly falcate 



