A GRICUL TURAL IND US TRIES. 



77 



54. Alliiim ascaloiiicinn, L., Jap. Wakegi, the shalot. This is 

 not known in a wild state, and is considered by de CandoUe 

 merely a sub-species of the onion. 



55. Allium schmioprasum, L., Jap. Azatuki, the chives, also 

 much grown endemically, though not in Japan. 



56. Allium pornim, L., Jap. Nira, leek or porret, is, according 

 to Gay/ a cultivated form of A. ampeloprasum, L. According to 

 Kinch, A. senescens, L., is designated Nira. The onion and stalk 

 of this especially pungent variety are eaten mostly boiled.^ 



Besides the above-mentioned kinds of leek, the following also 

 are used in Japan : 



57. Allium splendens^ Willd. {A. arenarium, Thunb.), Jap. Rak'- 

 kiyo and 



58. y4. japoiiicum, Regel, Jap. Yama-Rak'kiyo, two species, of 

 which I do not know the cultivated forms. 



59. Bambusa puberula, Miq., and several other kinds of Take or 

 bamboo-cane furnish the kitchen with Take-no-ko, young bamboo- 

 sprouts, which break forth from the ground in spring like giant 

 asparagus, and yield at this season a much relished, but insipid dish. 



60. Pteris aquilina, L., Jap. Warabi, brake-fern. The rhizome 

 of this plant, as a yielder of starch, was noticed in a former section. 

 But its young tops, too, as long as they are yet undeveloped and 

 rolled together, are highly esteemed throughout the Japanese 

 Empire, and much eaten in soup. 



In addition to the vascular plants mentioned in the foregoing 

 list, and a large number of other, mostly endemic varieties, which 

 are now and then utilized in Japanese kitchens as vegetables or 

 relishes, we must here consider the fungi and marine algae. Num- 

 bers of people are employed in gathering, preparing and disposing 

 of these plants, which are useful not only for home consumption 

 but also in commerce. Unfortunately the fungi, as well as the 

 lichens of the land, have been hitherto very hardly treated by the 

 botanists. Von Siebold certainly offers us a list of 32 Japanese 

 names, " quae vero fungorum species, aut sponte crescentes, aut 

 arte imo provocatae, crudae, salsae, siccataeque vix in ulla desunt 

 coena"; but there is no closer description or discrimination of 

 them. This gap exists still, nor will it be filled up by the following 

 remarks. They may serve, however, at least to dispose of some 



^ "Ann. des sc. nat." 36 serie. Vol. 8. 



2 With the above mentioned chief Japanese varieties of leek, I was able to 

 reconcile, only in part, an older list of the Go- shin, for which I am indebted 

 to my learned friend, the priest Nanjio Bunyiu. It follows here with its 

 Chinese-Japanese and Japanese names, the latter in parenthesis : Dai-san, 

 (Chobiru), Shio-san (Ninniku), Kokyo (Aratsuki), Ji-s6 (Hitomoji or Negi), 

 Kaku-s6 (Nobiru). The least is All. 7zipponicum F. and Sav., a variety which, 

 so far as I know, is not cultivated at all. 



