232 WILSON EXPEDITION TO CHINA 



(No. 7580; tree 20-30 m., girth 3-4 m.); Ugo province, slopes of Chokai-san, 

 October 1914, E. H. Wilson (No. 7177); Uzen province, June 7, 1904, K. Saku- 

 rai; Shimotsuke province, Nikko region, around Lake Chuzenji, September 3, 

 1892, C. S. Sargent; same locality, August 11, 1905, J. G. Jack; Shinano province, 

 slopes of Tsubakura-dake, alt. 1000-1500 m., September 13, 1914, E. H. Wilson 

 (No. 7448). Kyushu: Hizen province, Nagasaki, 1863, C. Maximowicz (in 

 Herb. Gray); slopes of Kirishima, alt. 500-1000 m., March 10, 1914, E. H. Wilson 

 (No. 6256); without locahty, 1886, H. Mayr; without locahty or collector ex Herb. 

 Lugd.-Bat. in Herb. Gray as Q. crispula. 



With abundant material before us we find it impossible to separate this Oak 

 specifically from Q. mongolica Fischer, and, indeed, we have doubts whether it is 

 entitled to rank even as a variety. The less thickened scales of the cup, which is 

 usually not fringed at the rim, and the usually more narrow acorn seem to be the prin- 

 cipal differences. In extreme forms the few veins and the broad rounded teeth of 

 one and the numerous veins and the narrow acute teeth of another look very dis- 

 tinct, but there is every gradation between these extremes. In Japan Wilson paid 

 much attention to this Oak, but was unable to discover any valid difference be- 

 tween Q. crispula Blume and Q. grosseserrata Blume. The habit of the trees 

 and the character of the bark are the same whether the trees are growing in Kyushu, 

 Hondo or Hokkaido. Blume's principal difference appears to be in the number of 

 the veins of the leaves, but this has no significance since it breaks down on almost 

 every tree. Miyabe separates them on differences in the fruit, but such differences 

 cannot be read into Blume's descriptions, since the fruits were unknown to him. 

 Moreover, although such differences in the size of the cup as pointed out by 

 Miyabe do exist, they are not constant, and Wilson found that the cups often 

 varied on the same individual tree. Nor is there any taxonomic value in the 

 fact that the cup falls with the acorn or sheds it. On the same individual both 

 of these conditions occur, but most usually the acorn is shed first and the cup 

 falls later. 



This Oak grows through the length and breadth of Japan, but it is most abundant 

 in the colder parts from central Hondo northward. It is especially plentiful in 

 Hokkaido, where it is being rapidly felled, and it is the most important hardwood 

 timber tree in northern Japan. The Japanese name is Nara, and the wood, though 

 very durable, is for a hardwood fairly easily worked, and for making furniture it 

 approximates in value the best European and American Oak timber, ranking com- 

 mercially after Austrian or Hungarian Oak (Q. robur Linnaeus, Q. sessiliflora SaUs- 

 bury and Q. conferta Kitaibel) and Indiana Oak (Q. alba Linnaeus, Q. bicolor Wil- 

 denow, Q. macrocarpa Michaux). In recent years a large and increasing trade in 

 Nara lumber has developed, and every year it is exported from Hokkaido to Amer- 

 ica and Europe for furniture making, flooring, panelling, etc., and to China, India, 

 Australia, Egypt and other parts of Africa for railway ties. The demand aimually 

 exceeds the supply, and in about a decade more the tree will be, commercially 

 speaking, non-existent. Unfortunately it is not being replanted by the Japanese 

 government foresters and the trees are mostly too old for a successful coppice 

 growth to develop from the old stools. 



The Nara grows from 25 to 30 m. tall, with a trunk from 2 to 4 m. in girth, and 

 massive spreading branches forming a flattened crown. The bark is pale gray and 

 scaly, but occasional old trees are found on which the bark is dark and furrowed 

 very much as in Q. mongolica Fischer. 



Pictures of this tree will be found under Nos. x234, x259, x261, x264, x265, x279, 

 x300, x301, x302, x354, x407, x451, x458, x540 of the collection of Wilson's 

 Japanese photographs. An interesting account of wood of this Oak is to be found 

 in the Timber Trades Journal, July 24, 1915. 



