248 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY 



Fam. Araliace^. 



92. Calopanax ricinifolia^ Miq. {Acanthopanax ricinifolia, S. and 

 Z.), Jap. Se-no-ki, Shi-o-ji. This beautiful tree is distinguished 

 by its great, lobate, shiny leaves, its white flower-umbels, and 

 black fruit, of the size of pepper-corns, resembling, like its flowers, 

 the Aralia and Ivy. Like Magnolia hypoleuca and ^sculos 

 turbinata it is scattered in the high mountain forests of Japan 

 from Kiushiu to Yezo,^ but is most numerous in the North. In 

 Yezo, trunks of from 3 to 4 m. circumference and 30 m. height 

 may be seen. I often found them in Hondo quite as high, but 

 generally not so thick. In high forests the trunks are often some- 

 what bent, and do not branch till they are 20 m. high. Their 

 dark, thick, rugged bark makes them as noticeable as their beauti- 

 ful foliage. The white wood shades often into brown, and is 

 moderately light, rough-fibred, and more or less porous. Cross 

 cut, it shows year-rings, but no pith-rays. The pores are of two 

 kinds : one sort microscopic and scattered about in the thick 

 summer-wood ; the other apparent to the naked eye, and denoting 

 the spring girdles. According to Bohmer, the Ainos make their 

 canoes out of the large trunks from 6 to 9 m. (20') long. They 

 call the tree, he says further, Yoshini ; the Japanese, Se-no-ki and 

 Hari-giri.^ 



Fam. Lythrarie^. 



93. Lager sir dmia indicay L., Jap. Saru-suberi, is said by Brandis ^ 

 to be of Chinese extraction, and according to Gamble,^ is often 

 found as an ornamental plant in the gardens of India. In Japan, 

 also, it is cultivated here and there, on account of its beautiful red 

 flower-clusters. It is characterized not only by these, but by the 

 fact that its brownish bark shells off" of itself. It is a slow-growing 

 bush or low tree, with a firm, fine-grained wood of a light pink 

 colour. Cut across, the wood shows small pores, year-rings close 

 together, and numerous pith-rays. It is used in turning. 



^ According to Bohmer in his "Reports to the Kaitakushi," 1875, p. 312, this 

 tree grows best in Yezo, and becomes a tree of almost tropical appearance. F. 

 Schmidt found fine, lofty trees in Southern Sachalin also. 



2 In the previously mentioned collection of woods, which the Japanese Govern- 

 ment sent to the Paris Exhibition, 1878, there is a tablet of Satsuporo (Sapporo) 

 from Yezo, bearing both these names ; also a second marked Shi-oji, from the 

 province of Musashi. They are both of a greyish white colour, but are not 

 alike in structure nor in weight, as the Shi-oji is much the heavier. The 

 Sapporo specimen has fine pores, and each year-ring shows only one row of 

 distinct spring-pores, while the other has a whole girdle of irregularly arranged 

 pores. 



3 " Forest Flora of North-west and Central India," p. 240. London, 1874. 

 -* "A Manual of Indian Timbers," p. 200. Calcutta, 1882. 



