THE EOSE FAMILY. 3T 



great summer heat evidently does not suit it, as in Tokyo the trees never grow to a great size, 

 and by midsummer are leafless ; so that, except during the short blooming season, the exces- 

 sive use of this tree is a real injury to the appearance of the gardens and promenades of the 

 capital and of other southern cities. 



Prunus Pseudo-Cerasus is of some value as a timber-tree, producing hard, close-grained red 

 wood, which is hardly to be distinguished from that of the European Cherry. It is used in 

 considerable quantities for all sorts of wooden dishes and other small articles of domestic use. 

 Rather curiously, perhaps, no attention has been paid to improving the size and quality of the 

 fruit, which is not larger than a small pea, with a thin layer of flesh. 



The pendulous-branched Cherry-tree, with precocious pink flowers, now common in our 

 gardens, where it is known as Prunus pendula, is often cultivated by the Japanese, who, 

 however, do not appear to feel the same regard for this graceful tree that the Apricot and the 

 Cherry inspire. I never saw it growing wild, and cannot refer the cultivated plants to a wild 

 type. Specimens fifty or sixty feet high, with wide-spreading fountain-like heads, are not 

 uncommon in old temple gardens in many of the cities of Hondo. This beautiful tree thrives 

 perfectly in our climate, and in early spring, when its branches are covered with its pale pink 

 pendulous flowers, no tree is more beautiful. 



I did not see the Cherries in bloom, and most of them had dropped their fruit before I 

 reached Japan ; several species described by botanists I did not see at all, and of several 

 others I obtained a very superficial idea ; and there is evidently still much to be learned of 

 the proper limitation cf described east Asian species and varieties, and of their geographical 

 distribution. Among the little known species, Prunus Maximo wiczii (see Plate xii., made 

 from material for which I am indebted to Professor Miyabe), seems to deserve the attention 

 of horticulturists. 



As I saw it in Yezo, Prunus Maximowiczii ' is a tree twenty-five to thirty feet in height, 

 with a slender trunk and branches covered with smooth pale or light red bark. The young 

 branchlets and petioles, the under surface of the unfolding leaves, and the branches of 

 the inflorescence are coated with rusty pubescence which only partly disappears during the 

 season. The leaves are elliptical or elliptical-obovate, contracted at the apex into long slender 

 points, wedge-shaped or rounded at the base, long-petiolate, coarsely and doubly serrate, thin, 

 light green on the upper, and paler or rufous on the lower surface. The stipules are folia- 

 ceous, lanceolate-acute, coarsely serrate, an inch long, or rather shorter than the petioles, and 

 deciduous. The flowers, which, in the neighborhood of Sapporo, appear in May, are produced 

 on long slender pedicels in axillary racemes three or four inches long, and conspicuous from 

 their large foliaceous bracts, which are coarsely serrate with gland-tipped teeth ; they are half 

 an inch across when expanded, with leafy serrate hairy calyx-lobes and obovate or orbicular 

 white petals. The fruit ripens in July, and is oblong and rather less than a quarter of an 

 inch long. In Japan, Prunus Maximowiczii does not appear to be a common tree. I saw a 

 few specimens on the hills near Sapporo and a single tree on the main island, where it is said 



1 Prunus Maximowiczii, Ruprecht, Bull. PJiys. Math. Acad. Franchet & Savatier, Enum. PI. Jap. i. 118. Forbes & 

 St. Petersbourg, xv. 131. Maximowicz, Fl. Amur. 89 ; Mel. Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Soc. xxiii. 219. 

 Biol. xi. 700. F. Schmidt, Reisen in A murland, 125. 



