Ill 



JAPANESE (EAST ASIATIC) CONIFERS 



The Japanese species have always been the troublesome child 

 of the Forest Seed Establishments, and are so still; for even after 

 the lapse of so many years I am not yet so far advanced as to 

 know with confidence the difference between the seeds of all the 

 species of Abies and Pinus, not to mention Picea. For as a rule I 

 receive no Picea seed at all, although year by year I order some 

 of every species. When I do at last receive something, it is so im- 

 pure and so different in appearance from year to year that there 

 is generally nothing further to be done with it, except to send it 

 out to the nurseries and beg leave to let time show what species 

 it will produce. 



However, in the case of some of the Abies species: Abies firma 

 and A. Mariesii, and to a certain extent A. homolepis, I feel on 

 the safe side. But what we receive as A. umbilicata may be some- 

 times one thing and sometimes another; only twice 1907 and 

 1910 I consider I have certainly succeeded in obtaining the right 

 article, every other time the seed has been either A. firma or A. 

 homolepis. 



The seed of Abies Veitchii and A. sachalinensis (A. Veitchii var. 

 sachalinensis) is certainly also sent indiscriminately by the Japa- 

 nese, so much so that I cannot with certainty distinguish between 

 the seed of the two species. 



The same is the case with the seed of Pinus densiflora and 

 P. Thunbergii; each year the outward appearance of the seed re- 

 ceived is so different that I am often in doubt about them. 



In spite of the fact that I have succeeded in forming some 

 under the circumstances very good connections in Japan, I can- 

 not get any further with them than just sending each summer a 



