76 FOPEST FLORA OF JAPAN. 



hardiness of this beautiful tree, which thrives under the most trying- conditions and in the 

 severest climates, indicates that it originated in some northern interior region ; and if it is 

 ever seen growing without cultivation it will probably be in some remote district of Mongolia. 

 There are noble great broad-branched specimens in the neighborhood of the temples in 

 Tokyo fully a hundred feet high, with tall massive trunks six or seven feet in diameter. The 

 Gingko is, perhaps, the most beautiful, as it is certainly the most interesting tree which is 

 to be seen in Japan ; and in the autumn, especially when the sunlight flutters through the 

 bri<'-ht yellow leaves, these great trees, with their broad heads of graceful semipendulous 

 brandies, are magnificent objects. The fleshy covering of the fruit has a rancid and most 

 disagreeable flavor, but the kernel of the almond-like stone is delicate and is esteemed a lux- 

 ury in botli China and Japan, where it is found in the markets in considerable quantity. 

 The wood, which is light yellow in color, is soft and brittle, and as the trees grow to a very 

 'reat a'e and are planted only for ornament in Japan and rarely cut down, it has no economic 

 importance there. 



Torreya, or, if the custom which now prevails among American botanists is followed, 

 Tuinion, Ralinesque's name, which also appears in eastern and western America and in China, 

 occurs in Japan in its largest and most beautiful representative, Tumion nuciferum, one of the 

 handsomest of all coniferous trees. Although nowhere very common, the Kaya, as this tree 

 is called in Japan, was seen in all the mountainous regions of central Hondo which we visited. 

 It often grows as an under-shrub in the forest, or as a small tree twenty or thirty feet tall, 

 but occasionally rises to the dignity of a tree of the first class, as on the banks of the 

 Kisogawa, near Agematsu, where we saw specimens fully eighty feet high, with great trunks 

 four or live feet in diameter. Such trees, with their bright red bark and compact heads of 

 dark green, almost black lustrous foliage, possess extraordinary beauty. No other Yew-like 

 tree which I have seen equals it in massiveness and depth of color, and the Kaya should be 

 cultivated wherever the climate permits it to display its beauty. The elevation above the sea 

 at which it flourishes in Japan indicates that it will be hardy in the middle states, although 

 we cannot expect to see it grow to any size in New England. An oil used in cooking, kaya- 

 no-abura, is an article of considerable commerce in Japan, and the kernels of the nuts, which 

 possess an agreeable, slightly resinous flavor, are sold in great quantities in the markets' in 

 the autumn, and are a favorite article of food. The wood is strong, straight-grained, light 

 yellow, and valued in building and cabinet-making. 



Taxus, which has two species in eastern America, one in the north and another, almost 

 the rarest of American trees, in the south, which is represented in western North America, 

 and is widely distributed through Europe and continental Asia, appears in Japan with a noble 

 tree, Taxus cuspidata, which, to judge by our observations, is confined to the island of Yezo, 

 where it is not uncommon on the low hills of the interior. Here it often attains the height of 

 forty or fifty feet, and forms a trunk two feet in diameter, covered with bright red bark. 

 The Yew is often employed by the Japanese to ornament their gardens, and the wood, which 

 is exceedingly hard, tough, and of a bright red color, is used by the Ainos for their bows, and 

 is valued in cabinet-making and for the interior decorations of expensive houses. This beau- 

 tiful tree, as is now well known, flourishes in this country, where it has proved itself perfectly 

 hardy, promising to be really valuable as an ornamental plant. 



