276 AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 



not suited to our climate, because they at times fail in the rigour of 

 our winter, or that the olive tree is not really acclimatized in Spain, 

 because some years ago an unusual November frost created con- 

 siderable desolation in the olive groves of Andalusia. 



No other land, the United States of North America hardly 

 excepted, has furnished us so large a number of fine ornamental 

 plants as Japan. Our landscape gardening has gained much from 

 their introduction, which has taken place mostly within a hundred, 

 indeed during the last fifty, years. Blooming Camellias, Azaleas, 

 Forsythia, Kerria, Spiraea, apple and plum varieties, belong to the 

 first spring adornments of our flower stands and gardens. Beautiful 

 foliage plants, like Azalea, Aucuba, and Sedum Sieboldi, and several 

 Conifers decorate them the year through, and it is scarcely possible 

 to specify the great number of Japanese plants which delight us 

 during the summer by their lovely fliowers. I note only the Pseony, 

 Wistaria, and Paulownia, the several species of Weigelia, Clematis, 

 Hydrangea, Philadelphus, Deutzia, and Spiraea, the Lilies, Panther 

 Lilies, and Funkia. What abundance and beauty of blossoms they 

 develop — how many gardens and parks they adorn ! And when 

 we cross the Alps and in the lovely gardens and parks of the 

 Mediterranean review thdr chief ornaments, we find the very same, 

 and among them a n umber of other J g-panese immigrants for whom 

 our winter is too severe, while there they thrive at their best, and 

 contribute materially to the peculiar and attractive plant cultiva- 

 tion. 



The evergreen trees and hushes from Japan — I refer now only to 

 Eriobotrya,Cinnamomum camphora, Euonymus, Ligustrum, and the 

 many Conifers — proved themselves better able to resist the severe 

 winter of 1879-80 in Northern Italy and Southern France, than 

 many of the oldest indigenous growths, e.g. ibex, olive, myrtle and 

 orange. It is no wonder that their cultivation becomes constantly 

 more extended. 



It is not possible sharply to distinguish the ornamental plants 

 originating in Japan from those of China. This is not only be- 

 cause the Flora of both countries show so many common varieties, 

 and this near relationship of taste is seen more noticeably in culti- 

 vated plants, but because the same variety is often introduced into 

 gardening not only from Japan, but also from China. 



It is often difficult, and even impossible in many cases, to find out 

 the time and manner of the importation of at least 300 varieties, 

 still there are accounts enough (I refer only to those in " Ait. Hortus 

 Kewensis") to make it certain that during the Portuguese trade 

 with Eastern Asia, not one of the ornamental plants of that 

 land was naturalized in Europe. Not a single specimen from 

 China or Japan is known to have been cultivated in Europe before 

 the eighteenth century, and of but very few — Camellia japonica, 

 Cinnamomum camphora, Hibiscus manihot, Dianthus japonicus, 

 and Elseagnus latifolia — that their culture began before 1750. 



