58 FOREST FLORA OF JAPAN. 



tree, and the dense compact round head of slender branchlets resembles the crown of that 

 tree', while the leaves, which are large, ovate-acute, coarsely serrate, and roughened on the 

 upper surface, are like those of the Elm. 



Zelkova is a genus with three arborescent species ; one inhabits Crete, another the Cauca- 

 sus, and the third Japan. The flowers are very similar to those of the Elm, and are unisexual 

 or rarely polygamous, and are produced in early spring on branchlets of the previous year, 

 the males clustered in the axils of the lower leaves, and the females solitary in those of the 

 upper leaves. The fruit is a small drupe, more or less irregularly oblique in shape and two- 

 beaked with the remnants of the eccentric style; it has a membraneous or slightly fleshy 

 outer covering and a thin hard endocarp or stone, containing a single compressed concave 

 horizontal seed, without albumen, the thick embryo filling its cavity. 



Zelkova Keaki sometimes grows to the height of a hundred feet, and produces a trunk 

 eio-ht to ten feet in diameter. Such specimens are often found in the gardens surrounding 

 temples in the large cities, and by village roadsides in the interior provinces. If any wild 

 Keakis are left in the forests of Japan they must be rare, and I am not sure that we saw this 

 tree growing naturally, although it is everywhere one of the most commonly planted deciduous 

 trees. Large specimens, which we saw on the Nakasendo, near Agematsu, in one of the 

 mountain provinces of central Hondo, and a very remote region, may have been growing 

 naturally ; but even this is doubtful, for the Nakasendo has been a traveled highway for at 

 least twelve hundred years, and a thousand years ago was probably more frequented than it is 

 now. Of the range and habitat of this tree I have, therefore, no idea whatever. 



The wood is more esteemed by the Japanese than that of any of their other trees. It is 

 noted for its toughness, elasticity, and durability, both in the ground and when exposed to 

 the air ; it is considered the best building material in Japan, although it has become so scarce 

 and expensive that keaki is not now used for this purpose, except in temples, where the large 

 round light brown highly polished columns which support the roof are always made of this 

 wood. It is still much used in cabinet-making and turnery, and in the manufacture of many 

 small articles, which always command high prices. 



Zelkova Keaki is probably the only Japanese tree which is worth introducing into this 

 country on a large scale as a timber-tree ; that it will thrive here at least as far north as 

 southern New England, the plants in Dr. Hall's garden in Warren, Rhode Island, indicate. 

 There are several of these raised from seed sent home by Dr. Hall in 1862 ; they have 

 received no special care, the soil in which they were planted is not exceptionally good, and 

 their growth has been no doubt checked by overcrowding. They are now, however, at least 

 fifty feet high, and have produced trunks a foot in diameter ; they flowered and fruited last 

 year, and our illustration (see Plate xix.) is made from specimens taken from these trees, 

 with the exception of the large single leaf, which has been drawn from a specimen gathered 

 in Japan. 



The Zelkova, of all Japanese trees, should be better known in eastern America, where it 

 may, perhaps, become an imported timber-tree, and produce wood as strong as our best oak, 

 which it surpasses in compactness, durability, and lightness, for keaki, in comparison with its 

 strength, is remarkably light. 



