FLORA OF JAPAN. 39 



Spircea Aruncus. On some future occasion we hope to make 

 a somewhat extended comparison between the flora of tem- 

 perate North America, and that of Japan and Middle Asia.^ 



Professor Zuccarini, the author, in conjunction with Dr. Sie- 

 bokl, of the excellent " Flora Japonica " now in progress, has 

 recently published the first part of a brief memoir, entitled, 

 " Florae Japonicse familiae Naturales, adjectis generum et spe- 

 cierum exemplis selectis : Sect. i. Plantss dicotyledoneaa j^oly- 

 petala3." ^ It is interesting to remark how many of our char- 

 acteristic genera are reproduced in Japan, not to speak of 

 striking analogous forms. Thus the flora of Japan has not 

 only Wistaria, Lespedeza, Sieversia, Chimonanthus (in place 

 of our Calycanthus), Philadelphus, several species of Rhus 

 closely resembling our own, and two peculiar genera of Ju- 

 glandece, but also a Pachysandra, some Berchemias, a Sta- 

 phylea, and a peculiar genus of the tribe (Euscaphis) besides ; 

 not only a dozen Maples, but also a Negundo, a Stuartia, two 

 Tilias, a Phytolacca, an Opuntia (surely not indigenous), a 

 Sicyos referred to our own S. angulata, two Droseras, a 

 Nelumbium, a Nuphar, and two species of Nymphaea, Gyuan- 

 dropsis, a real Dicentra (Dielytra) and an allied new genus, 

 with several species of Corydalis, a Trollius, our own Coptis 

 and two new ones like the western C. asplenifolia^ an Iso- 

 pyrum, two species of Aquilegia, one of them near A. Can- 

 adensis^ a Cimicifuga, a Trautvetteria, an Illicium, some 

 Magnolias, Kadsura and Sphserostemma in place of Schi- 

 zandra, a Mitellopsis, two species of Astilbe (Hoteia), many 

 Hydrangeas as well as peculiar Hydrangeaceous forms, a 

 Hamamelis with two other characteristic genera of the family, 

 some true Dogwoods, as well as Benthamia the analogue of 

 our Cornus florida^ some true Vines, and two species of Am- 



1 This short paper is of peculiar interest. It contains the earliest record 

 of Professor Gray's investigations into the flora of Japan, and its relations 

 to that of eastern North America — investigations which many years later 

 enabled him to explain the distribution of plants through the northern 

 hemisphere by tracing their direct descent from ancestors which flour- 

 ished in the Arctic region during the latest tertiary periods, and estab- 

 lished his reputation as a philosophical naturalist. — C. S. S. 



2 American Journal of Science and Arts, 2 ser., ii. 135. 



