FRUITS AND FLOWERS OF NORTHERN JAPAN. 57 



to the native imagination and still constitutes, as it has for ages^ 

 a favorite subject for the poet's pen and the painter's brush. 



" No man so callous but he heaves a sigh 



" "When o'er his head the withered cherry-flowers, 



" Come fluttering down. — Who knows? the spring's soft showers 



" May be but tears shed by the sorrowing sky." 



The native Yesso cherrj' {Prunus Pseudo-cerasus) produces a 

 fruit which is not of the slightest edible value. The tree is of 

 medium size. 



Another beautiful tree, rather sparinglv found in Yesso forests, 

 is Styrax obassia. This is handsome in foliage and produces 

 clusters of exquisite white flowers in midsummer. It would well 

 repay cultivation. Clerodendron trichotomum is a beautiful 

 shrub, especially when in fruit, with its handsome contrast of 

 brilliant purple and red. Eleagnus Japonicus is another favorite 

 of mine, with its silver foliage in summer and its wealth of scarlet 

 berries in autumn and winter. It is perfecth' hard}' and easily 

 cultiyated. The Japanese eat its fruit freely. It is seedy, but 

 has a rather pleasant acid flavor. A yellow Daphne I always 

 sought out in earliest spring. Its leaves are evergreen, its flowers 

 yellow and ver}- sweet. Diervilla versicolor, wild there, I consider 

 even handsomer than the Diervilla common in our gardens. I 

 transplanted this species to my Sapporo garden and found it bore 

 the change well and amply repaid the little care it required. 



The Actijiidia polygama, common everywhere in Yesso, deserves 

 more extended mention. I must first call 3-our attention to the 

 fact, however, that the Kokuwa {Actinidia arguta), of which I 

 have already spoken, has been sometimes mistakenly called by this 

 name. The two species are wholly distinct; and the i^olygama, 

 in m}' opinion, for ornamental purposes is worth far more than 

 the other. Its habit of growth is considerably less vigorous, 

 though it is by no means a slow grower. It will be found far less 

 obtrusive and more manageable ; but the chief point in which it 

 excels arguta is in the beauty of its foliage. Mature plants have 

 the habit of producing at the ends of the growing shoots some 

 four to six leaves which are tipped with a lustrous silvery white» 

 usually spreading over more than half the leaf. This peculiarity 

 gives it at a little distance, as it clambers over thickets, the appear- 

 ance of a plant in full and abundant bloom. Then, too, the 

 uncolored foliage is exceedingly beautiful, and the flowers, though 

 partly hidden by the leaves, are very pretty and have all the 



