THE LAUREL, EUPHORBIA, AND NETTLE FAMILIES. 



THE American traveler landing for the first time in Yokohama is surprised at the abun- 

 dance of arborescent Lauraceae, which here, with evergreen Oaks and Celtis australis, make 

 the principal features of the woods which cover the coast-bluffs and surround the temples. 

 The most abundant of the Lauracese in this part of Japan appears to be the Camphor-tree, 

 Cinnamoimun Camphora, one of the most beautiful of all evergreens, and probably indigenous 

 in southern Japan. In that part of the country which we visited, however, it had every 

 appearance of having been planted. Even at Atami, on the coast some distance below Yoko- 

 hama, a popular winter resort famed for the mildness of the climate and for the geyser, which 

 attract many visitors, the Camphor-tree is probably not indigenous. Near the town is the 

 grove of Kinomiya, where may be seen what is popularly supposed to be the largest Camphor- 

 tree in Japan. It is really a double tree, as the original stem has split open, leaving irregular 

 faces, which have become covered with bark. Between the two parts there is sufficient space 

 for a small temple. The larger of the two divisions at five feet from the surface of the 

 ground, and well above the greatly swollen base, girths thirty-three feet eight inches, and the 

 smaller twenty-seven feet six and a half inches. This remarkable tree, which has every 

 appearance of great age, is still vigorous and in good health. Atami is celebrated for the 

 skill of its workers in wood, and for the production of many small articles made from the 

 wood of the Camphor-tree. The hills along the coast are covered with groves of Orange- 

 trees, and in the temple gardens were many southern trees which we did not see in perfection 

 in other parts of the empire. 



On the coast of this part of Japan, Cinnamomum pedunculatum becomes a tree thirty or 

 forty feet in height, and on the neighboring Hakone Mountains ascends to elevations of a 

 couple of thousand feet. It is a handsome tree, with ample ovate acute lustrous leaves, pale 

 or nearly white on the lower surface, and long-stalked flowers and fruit. In the same region 

 two other arborescent Lauracese grow naturally Litsea glauca and Machilus Thunbergii. 

 They are both evergreens, and are handsome trees, especially the Litsea, which bears oval 

 leaves pointed at both ends, silvery white on the lower surface, and often six inches long, 

 and near the ends of the branches abundant clusters of black fruit. These two trees are the 

 most northern in their range of the Lauracese of Japan with persistent foliage, and they may 

 be expected to thrive in this country where the evergreen Magnolia and the Live Oak flourish. 

 The flora of eastern Asia is rich in Linderas, no less than twenty species having already 

 been found in the Chinese empire and in Corea, while in North America there are only two 

 Lindera Benzoin, the common Spice-bush of northern swamps, and the southern Lindera 

 melisssefolia. Japan possesses half a dozen indigenous Linderas, although none of them are 

 endemic, and in the mountain regions of Hondo several species are common, and make nota- 

 ble features in the shrubby growth which covers hillsides and borders streams and lakes. 



