THE OAKS, CHESTNUTS, WILLOWS, AND POPLARS. 



ALTHOUGH poorer in species and less important in the number, size, and value of individ- 

 uals than in eastern America, Quercus furnishes one of the principal elements of the forests 

 of Japan. The types are all of the Old World, and there is nothing in Japan which corre- 

 sponds with our Red, Black, or Scarlet Oaks, or with the Black Jack, the Willow Oak, the 

 Shingle Oak, the Turkey Oak, the Spanish Oak, the Water Oak, or the Pin Oak, the Blue 

 Jack, or with our Chestnut Oaks. In the north and on the high mountains of Hondo there 

 are four White Oaks, and in the south a number of species with evergreen foliage of sections 

 of the genus, which are not represented in the United States. In the south, too, there 

 are a couple of deciduous-leaved species with biennial fructification of the Turkey Oak 

 (Quercus Cerris) sort. 



The best known of the .Japanese Oaks to European and American planters is Quercus 

 dentata (the Quercus Daimio of gardens). This tree is remarkable for the great size of its 

 leaves, which are often a foot long and eight inches broad, obovate in outline, and deeply 

 serrately lobed, and for the long loose narrow chestnut-brown scales of the large cup which 

 nearly incloses the small-pointed acorn. In central Hondo this tree is found only on the high 

 mountains, and it is not at all common ; but in the extreme northern part of the island it 

 appears in great numbers on dry gravelly slopes, at no great elevation above the sea. Here, 

 apparently, however, it does not reach the size it attains farther north, and the finest trees we 

 saw were on the gravelly plain south of Volcano Bay, and in the neighborhood of Sapporo. 

 The illustration (see Plate xxiii.) represents a group of these trees growing just outside of 

 Sapporo, and shows their habit at maturity. Although Quercus dentata grows to the height 

 of at least eighty feet, and forms a thick trunk more than three feet in diameter, it is not 

 an imposing or handsome tree in its maturity, and is only beautiful in youth. Old trees 

 lack symmetry and the appearance of strength, and are sprawling in habit, without being- 

 picturesque. The bark is rather dark for a White Oak, and not unlike that of our Rock 

 Chestnut Oak (Quercus Prinus) ; it is valued for tanning leather, but the wood is considered 

 worthless. Quercus dentata appears to be the only deciduous-leaved Oak cultivated by the 

 Japanese, and small trees are common in the gardens of Tokyo and other southern cities, 

 where, however, they seem to languish. A variety (pinnatifida), with deeply divided leaves, is 

 cultivated in the Botanic Garden at Tokyo, and has, I believe, been introduced into Europe. 



In central Yezo two noble White Oaks, Quercus crispula and Quercus grosseserrata, form 

 a considerable part of the forest-growth. The Dutch botanist Miquel considered them forms 

 of one species ; but Professor Miyabe, who has had the best opportunity for studying these 

 trees under the most favorable conditions, believes them to be distinct in their fruit, although 

 similar in foliage. In Quercus crispula he finds " the cup deeper, embracing about half the 

 cylindrical nut, falling off with it when ripe ; while in the latter, Quercus grosseserrata, the 



