18 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



1876 seeds of many valuable plants such as Magnolia kobus, var. 

 borealis, Ccrcidiphylhim japonicwn, Syringa japonica, and Adinidia 

 polygama. In the Arnold Arboretum and elsewhere many fine speci- 

 mens raised from his seeds are growing today. 



A few Japanese plants — Rosa rugosa for example — reached 

 Europe toward the end of the eighteenth century, but it was not 

 until after Commodore Perry's Expedition in 1852-'54, and the 

 signing of the treaty on March 31st, 1854, which resulted in the 

 opening of Japan to foreign commerce, that the plants of that land 

 began to find their way freely to the Occident. A Russian expedi- 

 tion under Admiral Putiatin was in the Far East from 1852-55, 

 and on January 21st, 1855, a treaty between Japan and Russia 

 was signed. Shortly afterward treaties between Japan and other 

 Western countries w^ere signed. 



From 1611 the Dutch East India Company had trading rights 

 in Japan and established a factory on a small island contiguous 

 to Nagasaki, and we owe our first knowledge of the flora of Japan 

 to officers of this Company. From 1823 to 1830 Phillip Franz von 

 Siebold was an officer in the Dutch company and resided in Japan, 

 and from about 1850 to 1865 he imported plants to a nursery he 

 established at Leiden in Holland. Among the most important 

 of his introductions may be mentioned Malus floribunda, M. Si^- 

 boldii, Wistaria floribunda, var. macrobotrys, and Prunus subhir- 

 tella, var. pend^da. 



A Russian, Carl Maximowicz, who in 1854-1856 made very 

 extensive collections in the Amur region of eastern Siberia, made a 

 journey to Japan lasting from 1859 to 1864, which resulted in our 

 first intimate knowledge of the forest flora of Japan and in the 

 acquisition of a great many plants valuable to gardens, including 

 Berberis Thunbergii. 

 (J^ Three Englishmen — John Gould Veitch from early spring to 

 autumn of 1860; Robert Fortune from the autumn of 1860 to the 

 summer of 1861; Charles Maries from 1877 to 1880 — collected 

 extensively in Japan and each added to gardens treasures beyond 

 price. During the same period, and in the early 'eighties various 

 foreign amateurs in Japan sent to their friends in this country 

 and in Europe such valuable plants as Vitis Coignetiae, Prunus 

 scrrulata, var. sachalinensis, Rosa multiflora, R. Wichuraiana and 

 Rose " Crimson Rambler." 



