54 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Two other species of aconite are found in the Yesso forests ; but 

 both are less beautiful and less common than the one of which I 

 have spoken. 



B}' far the most delicately beautiful of spring flowers in the 

 vicinity of Sapporo is the Corydalis ambigua, with its fragile stems 

 and leaves, and its lovel}' racemes of flowers, shading into the most 

 exquisite tints and hues of blue and ultramarine and pink, and 

 sometimes becoming almost white. The fragrance too of the 

 flowers is wonderfully delicate and sweet. I should think this 

 species and its rarer form with the lobes of the leaves linear might 

 be cultivated quite easily, and if so they would amply repay the 

 care bestowed upon them. The far more sturdy and quite differ- 

 ent Corydalis aurea has also great beauty of its own. Both thrive 

 in moderately light soils. 



The Japanese primrose (^Primula Japonica), is everywhere 

 common along the banks of streams and must not be forgotten. 

 It is, however, I believe, well known to European and American 

 gardeners, and is justly esteemed for its elegant habit and great 

 beauty of flower. 



I wish next to call your attention to the Yesso Spiraeas, of which 

 there are a large number of species, several of which are of 

 unusual beauty. I would mention as especially worthy of atten- 

 tion the species aruncus, callosa, and sorbifoUa — widely different 

 each from the other, but any one of which would form beautiful 

 clumps in a garden or add grace and beauty to a bouquet. 



I must not forget here the flower known to the Japanese as hagi 

 — a species of Lespedeza, with pinkish flowers — which is celebrated 

 in Japanese storj' and song, and is regarded as one of the eight 

 beautiful wild flowers of autumn. Two others which are included 

 b}' the Japanese in the same class stand next in my list, — Patri- 

 nia scabioscefolia and Platycodon grandijlorum. These are almost 

 invariably found together in open sandy localities ; and a beautiful 

 combination they make either in field or bouquet — the Patrinia 

 with its broad cymes of pale gold and the Platycodon with its large 

 bells of heaven's own deep blue. You are wondering what are the 

 other flowers which make up the magic number, and as these, with 

 one exception, are also found wild in Yesso I may mention them. 

 They are the grass pink, the morning glory, a grass which has 

 beautiful autumn plumes (Eulalia Ja])07iica) , the aster , and the 

 wistaria. The latter I have never seen wild in Yesso. 



