24 FOREST FLORA OF JAPAN. 



Japanese, .although I saw only two or three specimens of this plant ; these were handsome 

 trees, thirty to forty feet in height, with well-formed trunks twelve to thirteen inches in 

 diameter. The leaves are broadly ovate to nearly orbicular, with entire thickened margins, 

 and are very dark green and lustrous, although not thick nor very coriaceous. The fruit is 

 smaller than that of the two species already mentioned, and rather oblong in outline. 



A very distinct evergreen species, Ilex pedunculosa, is exceedingly common on the Naka- 

 sendo, the great central mountain road of Japan, in the valley of the Kisogawa. This plant 

 is sometimes a shrub two or three feet in height, and is sometimes twenty or thirty feet high, 

 when it is a well-formed tree, with a narrow round-topped head. The leaves are lustrous, 

 two to three inches long, ovate-acute, entire, and long-petiolate. The stems of the flower- 

 clusters, from which is derived its specific name and which are longer than the leaves, hold 

 the large bright-red fruit, which is solitary, or arranged in clusters of three or four, well 

 outside the leaves, giving to the plants a peculiar and beautiful appearance in the autumn. 

 Occasionally a tree of this species was seen in the garden of an inn on the Nakasendo ; but it 

 is evidently little known or cultivated in Japan, and apparently has not been introduced into 

 western gardens. Ilex pedunculosa will certainly flourish in western and southern Europe, 

 and I am not without hope that it will survive and possibly thrive in the northern United 

 States, as in Japan it is found at high elevations in a region of excessive winter cold. 



Ilex crenata is the most widely distributed and the most common of the Japanese Hollies 

 with persistent leaves ; this plant is abundant in Hokkaido, on the foothills of Mount 

 Hakkoda, and on the sandy barrens near Giit'u, on the Tokaido ; and I encountered it in 

 nearly every part of the empire which I visited. It is usually a low much-branched rigid 

 shrub, three or four feet high ; but in cultivation it not infrequently rises to the height of 

 twenty feet, and, assuming the habit of a tree, is not unlike the Box in general appearance. 

 The leaves, which are light green and very lustrous, vary considerably in size and shape, 

 although they are rarely more than an inch long, and are usually ovate-acute, with slightly 

 crenate-toothed margins. The black fruit is produced in great profusion, and in the autumn 

 adds materially to the beauty of the plant. This is the most popular of all the Hollies with 

 the Japanese ; and a plant usually cut into a fantastic shape is found in nearly every garden. 

 Varieties with variegated leaves are common and apparently much esteemed. Ilex crenata 

 and several of its varieties with variegated foliage were introduced into western gardens many 

 years ago and are occasionally cultivated, although the value of this plant as an under-shrub 

 appears to be hardly known or appreciated outside of Japan. Of the broad-leaved Japanese 

 evergreens, I have the most hope of success with Ilex crenata in this climate ; and if it proves 

 really hardy it will be a most useful addition to our shrubberies. 



Ilex Sugeroki, another evergreen species quite unknown, I believe, in gardens, may be 

 expected to thrive in Europe, and possibly in the northern United States, as it is an inhabitant 

 of southern Yezo and northern Hondo, where on Mount Hakkoda we found it in fruit, and 

 were able to secure a supply of the seeds. It is a spreading bush five or six feet high, with 

 stout branchlets, light green ovate leaves an inch long, rounded at the apex and coarsely 

 crenulate-toothed above the middle, and with bright scarlet long-stalked solitary fruit half an 

 inch in diameter. Ilex Sugeroki is an unusually handsome plant in the autumn, and of consid- 

 erable horticultural promise. 



