66 FOREST FLORA OF JAPAN. 



fine tree is apparently still unknown in American and European gardens ; it is one of the 

 largest of the Hornbeams, and certainly one of the most distinct and beautiful of them all. 

 As it grows in its native forests with a number of trees which flourish here in New England, 

 it may be expected to grace our plantations with its stately habit, large leaves, and long 

 clusters of fruit. 



Ostrya, the Hop Hornbeam, appears in North America with two species, one, a small 

 forest-tree of the eastern states, the second known only in the Grand Canon of the Colo- 

 rado in Arizona ; a third species inhabits southern Europe, Asia Minor, and the Caucasus ; 

 the genus has no representative in the Himalaya forest region ; and, so far as I know, has 

 not been found within the borders of the Chinese empire or in Manchuria. It appears 

 again in northern Japan, however, where the Hop Hornbeam is one of the rarest of 

 Yezo trees. Maximowicz, who found it in the southern part of that island, considered the 

 Japanese Ostrya a variety of our American species and called it Ostrya Virginica, var. 

 Japonica. 1 The American and the Japanese trees are very similar in botanical characters ; 

 indeed, it is difficult to find characters to separate satisfactorily the species of this genus, 

 which might all be considered geographical varieties of one. The Japanese and American 

 trees, however, look very differently in the forest, and there are differences in the bark 

 which are not easy to express in words. The leaves of the Japanese tree are thinner and 

 the heads of fruit are smaller than those on the American species (see Plate xxii.). Unfor- 

 tunately, I have not had an opportunity to examine the flowers of the Japanese tree ; it is 

 not probable, however, that they would afford a character by which the species could be dis- 

 tinguished. In the forests of Yezo I felt no doubt of its specific distinctness ; the meagre 

 and unsatisfactory material of the herbarium rather shakes than confirms this opinion. But, 

 all things considered, it is, perhaps, best to consider the Japanese tree as specifically distinct. 

 Not until it has been grown here during many years side by side with the American species 

 will it be possible to reach any opinion on this subject worthy of much consideration. If it 

 proves to be distinct it should bear the name of Ostrya Japonica. In the neighborhood of 

 Sapporo the Japanese Ostrya is rare ; here in low moist woods, growing with Oaks, Acantho- 

 panax, and Aralia, it sometimes attains a height of eighty feet, and forms a tall straight trunk 

 eighteen inches in diameter. We saw only one such tree, in the grounds attached to the 

 headquarters of the Forest Department of Hokkaido, and only two or three other individuals; 

 these were much smaller, perhaps not more than twenty feet high, and were scattered over 

 the Sapporo hills. We saw nothing of this tree in southern Yezo or in northern Hondo, 

 where Tschonoski, Maximowicz's servant and collector, found it on the high mountains of the 

 province of Nambu. 



1 Mel. Biol. xi. 317. 



