6 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY (January, 
jected to criticism for the occasional blunders or speculations that may be 
made in this far-off island. 
October 31st, 1886.—There was a cool, bracing air in the early morning, 
but a couple of hours of clear sunshine made a great change in the temperature, 
and it was a delightful day for a walk. Starting out about ten o’clock with 
some Japanese youths who had called to see us, we passed the old Castle of 
Osaka, one of the historic memorials of old Japan. The citadel, as it now 
stands, with the massive stone walls and broad moat, is probably three hundred 
years old. Near it we made our first dip, in Japan, for alge, and found one 
of our old acquaintances in America, the Wydrodictyon, which needed no 
microscope to reveal its name. The plant is not different from its represent- 
ative in America, at least not noticeably so. We may find, however, that 
this climate will enable us to observe some new features in the course of its 
development. Certainly climate, or perhaps we should use the word environ- 
ment, greatly influences the growth of alge as well as of higher plants. We 
cannot but observe this when we see, for example, that certain species of » 
@dogontum will not mature their fruit in some localities, while elsewhere their 
fruit is well known. This has been observed even where their vegetative 
growth is luxurious. 
Continuing our walk we passed south of the castle, which, by the way, is 
but a few rods from our own bungalow, and soon reached the great level rice- 
fields that stretch across the wide valley of the Yodo-gawa. Here and there 
we made a dip, and wrapped our finds in paper for examination at home. 
The afternoon was taken up by a trip to the Chrysanthemum display of 
Megatsuzi, a florist celebrated for his beautiful flowers of that genus. The 
sight was wonderful, but if we were to speak of the wonders of gardening 
in this country which we have already seen, time and space would fail us 
before completing the story. But we cannot omit to mention a characteristic 
which seems to pertain to the whole people, high and low, rich and poor. 
It is their admiration and love for flowers and trees, and, indeed, for all the 
beautiful things in nature. To-day hundreds visited the chrysanthemum dis- 
play, most of them on foot, and probably many of them walked six miles or 
more before they reached home again. The display here is celebrated through- 
out Japan. Some of the flowers were a foot in diameter and of most delicate 
and beautiful colors. . 
But we must pass on to the examination of our alge. Our finds were not 
very rich as the locality was not a very favorable one. The first one that 
appeared under the microscope was Vaucherza, but not in fruit. Then came 
a complete surprise in the form of Baczllaria paradoxa! ‘This interesting 
diatom occurred in great abundance and in most vigorous action. Whether 
this is a new discovery for Japan we do not know; but, having searched 
many a time at home for this same species and found it not, it is certainly a 
long distance to come to find it here. It is, indeed, interesting to observe the 
relation between the microscopic flora of Japan and our eastern coast, for 
among the higher orders of plants there is a remarkable similarity. 
Among the other alge noticed in our cursory examinations, which alone 
are referred to here, as time has not yet permitted the identification of species, 
were several species of SAzrogyra, Oscellaria, Anabena, desmids of various 
forms —but not numerous, or Mr. Wolle would have some for study—and 
diatoms in great variety. Some of the latter seem to be new to us; but the 
species of diatoms are far beyond our ken, so we will not venture upon fur- 
ther remarks. 
As will be inferred from the forms observed, the finds were mostly in 
brackish water, which fact doubtless accounts for the limited number of genera 
represented. 
