236 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



25. Abies JesoensiSy S. and Z. {Abies Menziesii, Louv.), Jap. 

 Yezo-matsu. This second kind of Yezo fir does not attain the 

 dimensions^ of the foregoing species, and is also less used. It is 

 found on Yezo and Sachalin, as well as in the mountain pine-forests 

 of Middle and Northern Hondo ; here and there also as an orna- 

 mental plant in gardens and temple groves, where it reaches a 

 height of 30 m., and a circumference of 2 to 3 m. 



26. Abies Tsuga, S. and Z. {Tsuga Sieboldi, Cam), Jap. Tsuga. 

 The Tsuga fir is found on all the large Japanese islands, chiefly 

 at an elevation of from 1,500 to 2,000 m. (region of firs and 

 larches), and especially on the light soil of volcanic mountains. It 

 grows usually in dense groves on a clear sod, with but few other 

 trees in its company. It is seldom found so low as 700 m., but 

 reaches there its best development, with a circumference of 3 to 4, 

 sometimes even to 5 meters, and a height of 24 m. with a trunk 12 

 to 14 m. The finest specimens I found in the forest of Kirishima- 

 yama, in Southern Kiushiu, with trunks 4 to 5 m. thick, growing 

 with Momi of equal size. In the mountain pine-forests, the height 

 and thickness decrease toward the top, especially the former, so 

 that in places over 2,000 m. in height, the trunk falls off in height 

 to about 6 or 8 m., as may be easily observed on climbing Nantai- 

 san in the mountains of Nikko. 



Wherever the Tsuga grows in forests by itself, it forms, like its 

 North American relative, the hemlock tree {A. Canadensis, Michaux), 

 a fine straight trunk, but when growing isolated it tends like this 

 one to fork and become crooked. The wood has very fine qualities 

 and is prized above that of all other firs in Japan. It has a reddish 

 colour, is moderately fibrous, fine grained, resinous, firmer and 

 tougher than the other pines and firs, and therefore more durable. 

 It is also less influenced by changes in temperature and damp. On 

 account of this property, and its resistance to moisture, it is used 

 by the prosperous Japanese for the verandah floor of his house, and 

 prized the more if it has a deep red colour. Its high price, how- 

 ever, due to the difficulty of working up, and also on account of 

 the inaccessibility of the forests, and the lack of proper transport- 

 ation, prevents any extensive use of the wood in house and ship 

 building, to which it is eminently adapted. 



2J, Pinus densijlora, S. and Z., Jap. Aka-matsu and Me-matsu. 



28. P. Massoniana, S. and Z. {P. Thunbergi, Pari), Jap. Kuro- 

 matsu and 0-matsu. These two pines, belonging to the Pinaster 

 Endl. group, are accounted among the most widely used and 

 favourite trees of Japan. The first is very similar to P. sylvestris^ 

 and the second like P. austriaca. With the latter, as with Kuro- 

 matsu, or the black pine, the colour of the bark of trunk and 

 branches is dark grey all the way through, while Aka-matsu, the 

 red pine, is marked, like our common pine, by the pale red colour 

 of the upper trunk and branches. 



^ "Reports to the Kaitakushi," 1875, P- 3o6. 



