THE LAUREL, EUPHORBIA, AND NETTLE FAMILIES. 59 



There is little to be said of the other Japanese trees of the Elm family. Celtis Sinensis, 

 with its thick coriaceous leaves and dull red berries, is one of the first trees to greet the 

 traveler landing in Yokohama, where it is common in the groves which cover the shore-bluffs, 

 growing with the Camphor-tree and the evergreen Oaks. It is a southern species of wide 

 range in southeastern Asia, which we cannot hope to grow in this country, except in the 

 southern states. 



Aphananthe aspera, a Celtis-like tree with ample bright green leaves and black fruit, 

 ranges as far north as central Yezo, and may be expected to give interest and variety to 

 dendrological collections in the United States and Europe, although to the mere lover of trees 

 with peculiar foliage or with showy flowers and fruit it will not appear sufficiently distinct 

 from our native Nettle-tree. 



Of the Broussonetias or Paper Mulberries, of which two or three species are included in 

 the flora of Japan, I saw specimens only in the Botanic Garden at Tokyo. They are all trees 

 of the south, or more probably introductions from China. The White Mulberry, Moms alba, 

 however, is certainly a Japanese species, as it grows as a small tree in the remote and primeval 

 forests of Yezo, although the numerous forms cultivated by the Japanese as food for the silk- 

 worm are usually of Chinese origin. Of the Fig-trees which appear in the flora of Japan, I 

 saw nothing at all, with the exception of one or two cultivated shrubby plants. They all 

 belong to the extreme south, and inhabit regions we did not visit. 



