May 25, 1899] 
NATURE 59 
/ 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
(The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 
pressed by his correspondents. Netther can he undertake 
to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 
manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. 
No notice ts taken of anonymous communications. | 
Mangroves Growing in Japan. 
HAVING resided for some years in the eastern part of Japan, 
and having travelled from time to time in various parts of the 
island of Kiusiu, and from thence to the Farther Isles within 
Fic. 1.—Thickets of Kandelia Rheed7i, Wight et Arn., growing together with Pinus densiflora, 
et Zucc., found on the sides of a stream at Kiiré in Satsuma, Japan. 
Sieb. 
from an original photograph taken by Prof. K. Mitsukuri.) 
the southern boundary of the Luchuan Archipelago, I have 
noticed that the tropical and sub-tropical types in the Japanese 
flora are much more marked than has hitherto been supposed. 
As an instance of this, a selection from the types of mangroves 
will probably be of more interest, not only to botanists, but also 
to all lovers of nature, than a list of plant-names. 
The northernmost limit of the mangroves in Japan is found in 
the coast of Kiiré at Satsuma in Kiusiu, where the only species 
represented is Kandelia Rheediz, Wight et Arm. The occurrence 
of the mangrove in that place is of high interest to geographical 
botany, inasmuch as that familar repre- 
Engler’s Botanische Jahrbiicher, vi., 1885, p. 63).1 If we pro- 
ceed again and come to the island of Uchina or the Licht 
Proper, and from thence to the Yayeyama Archipelago, which 
is situated close to Formosa, we find in these islands an ad- 
ditional species, Rhzzophora mucronata, L. It is in the Yaye- 
yama Archipelago that the mangroves exhibit their full develop- 
ment. In the island of Irumuti, the largest among the Yaye- 
yama Archipelago, they often exceed ten feet in height, and 
exhibit the characteristic feature of the ‘‘ mangrove forests” 
(Mangroven- Walder) of the tropical coasts, so admirably de- 
scribed by A. F. W. Schimper (‘‘ Die indo-malayische Strand- 
flora,” Jena, 1891) and by Karsten (‘‘ Ueber die Mangroven- 
vegetation in malayischen Archipel,” 
Cassel, 1891). Besides,  <Avicennia 
officinalis, L., and Sonneratza alba, 
L., the well-known associates of the 
mangroves, are now recorded to grow 
in the Yayeyama Archipelago. 
I observed, in the last-mentioned archi- 
pelago, that the fruit of the mangroves 
when ripe, produces, as is well known, 
hypocotyl, which soon develops and elong- 
ates, and that, in AAzzophora mucronata, 
Lam., it usually becomes 20-40 cent. or 
more, when the fruit drops on the ground 
and becomes transfixed. I may also con- 
firm the statement made by Warming (in 
Engler’s Botanische Jahrbiicher, iv., 1883, 
p- 519) against the well-known notion that 
in mangroves the roots produced from the 
ripe fruits a7 the trees hang down in the 
air, in the manner of banyan trees, and 
develop until they reach water, penetrate 
the mud, and become in time independent 
trees, 
Thus we observe that the three species 
of the mangroves are at present known to 
grow in Japan. In conclusion, I may here 
remark that the thickets of Aandelia 
Rheediz, Wight et Arn., found at the 
mouth of the river Yawata as well as at the coast between 
Nukumi and Mayenohama in Satsuma in the Bay of Kago- 
shima, and also those at Kashiwabara in Osumi, all of 
which being situated between 31° 18’/-31° 23’ N. lat., are, I 
think, the northernmost limit hitherto known of Rhizophoracez. 
Tokyo, April 13. TokuTaro Ito. 
(Reproduced 
The Development of the Tuatara, 
IN the last number of the ‘‘ Anatomischer Anzeiger”’ received 
in New Zealand, there is a paper by Dr. Schauinsland on the 
sentative of tropical vegetation is found 
there actually intermingled with that of 
the temperate flora, Pzus densiflora, 
Sieb. et Zucc. This curious and inter- 
esting combination is shown in the 
accompanying illustrations, which were 
reproduced from the original photographs 
by Prof. K. Mitsukuri of the Imperial 
University of Tokyo. Fig. 1 is a fair 
representation of an outlet of the stream 
along the coast in the Bay of Kagoshima. 
Both sides of the stream are studded 
here and there with the low thickets of 
Kandelia Rheedit, Wight et Arn., among 
which the evergreen 2nus denstflora, 
Sieb. et Zucc., stands with its out- 
stretching branches. A little further 
along the coast discloses a finer view 
(Fig. 2) of the mangrove, forming 
dense thickets in front; on the back- 
ground upon the ridge of the hill, a 
range of Pinus densiflora, Sieb. et Zucc., is seen in the 
distance. y 
Coming to the island of Amami-Oshima, the mangroves are 
common. Here, besides Kandelia Rheediz, Wight et Arn., 
another interesting species, Aruguzera gymnorhiza, Lam., 
makes its appearance. I may here state that Déderlein was, I 
believe, the first European botanist who collected these species 
in Japan (vide Botanesches Centralblatt, viii., 1881, p. 30, and 
NO. 1543, VOL. 60] 
Fic. 
2.—View of the coast near Kiiré with the thicket of Kandelia Rheedii, Wight et. Arn., in front. 
development of the Tuatara, confirming the results obtained by 
Dr. Dendy. A preliminary account of these results has already 
been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society (vol. Ixiii, 
p- 440), to which Schauinsland makes no reference, although 
they have been reported in NaTures, while the more detailed 
memoir was accepted by Prof. Lankester for publication in 
1The more technical account concerning the determinations of these 
specimens collected by Déderlein will be published elsewhere. 
