March 8, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



Ill 



tages of special quality, indicative of some hidden virtue apart 

 from natural fertility. 



The Westland Grape is severely pruned, only two shoots 

 being permitted to grow from the main stalk — one trained to 

 the right and one to the left along the foot of the wall near to 

 the ground. From these lateral stalks perpendicular shoots 

 are permitted to grow at a distance of one foot apart toward 

 the top of the wall. Each perpendicular shoot is allowed to 

 bear two bunches of grapes. These will average a little over 

 half a pound apiece. The estimated product of a wall in full 

 bearing is fifteen pounds to every twelve feet. Some of the 

 plants are over fifty years of age. In the early spring the 

 vines are so closely trimmed down that they cover but a 

 small portion of the wall. They begin to ripen early in Sep- 

 tember and last into November, large quantities of them being 

 exported. They somewhat resemble tlie Black Hamburg in 

 quality, and are highly esteemed in England, which affords 

 them a large market. The largest bunches weigh a pound 

 apiece ; the calculation being that fifteen pounds of grapes 

 will be produced to every twelve feet of wall. 



In winter the vines need a slight protection of mats, woven 

 from the long, coarse grass in which the partially submerged 

 lands of this country abound. In addition to the matting, 

 portable windows are used, which stand at an angle against 

 the wall when it is desirable to force the growth, but these are 

 rarely employed. The hollow stalk of the vine, large enough 

 to stand on end when cut, is used extensively for thatching. 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan. — VII. 



IN the forests of Japan are found two Lindens. They are 

 both extremely common in Hokkaido, and in the other 

 islands are rare, and confined to the mountain-slopes of 

 considerable elevation. The larger of the two, Tilia Mi- 

 queliana, is a handsome tree, often growing in central Yezo 

 to the height of one hundred feet and forming a trunk 

 four or five feet in diameter. As it is only seen crowded 

 among other trees in the forest, the branches are short and 

 the head is oblong and rather narrow. The bark, like that 

 of all the Lindens, is broken by longitudinal furrows, and 

 is light brown or dark gray. The young branchlets are 

 unusually stout for a Linden-tree, and in their first season 

 are covered, as are the large ovate-obtuse winter-buds, with 

 hoary tomentum. The leaves are deltoid ordeltoid-obovate, 

 abruptly contracted at the apex into broad points, obliquely 

 truncate or sub-cordate at the base, coarsely and sharply 

 serrate with incurved callous teeth ; they are four to six 

 inches long, three or four inches broad, rather light green, 

 and more or less puberulous on the upper surface and pale 

 and tomentose on the lower, especially on the prominent 

 midribs and primary veins, in their axils, and on the stout 

 petioles, which are two or three inches in length. The 

 peduncle-bract is rounded at the apex, sessile or short- 

 stalked, three or four inches long, from one-third to two- 

 thirds of an inch broad, and, like the slender stems and 

 branches of the flower-cluster and its bractlets, covered 

 with pale tomentum. The flowers appear in Sapparo 

 toward the middle of July. Like those of the American Lin- 

 dens and of two species of eastern Europe, Tilia petiolaris 

 and Tilia argentea, which Tilia Miqueliana resembles in 

 several particulars, the flowers are furnished with petal- 

 like scales, to which the stamens, united in clusters, are at- 

 tached. The sepals are ovate-acute, tomentose on the two 

 surfaces, especially on the inner, and shorter than the nar- 

 row obovate petals. The style, which, like the stamens, is 

 longer than the petals, is coated at the base with thick pale 

 hairs, which also cover the ovary. The fruit, which ripens 

 in October, is ovate to oblong, wingless, and nearly half an 

 inch long. It is from the inner bark of this species that the 

 Ainos make their ropes. 



Tilia Miqueliana* is comparatively little known, having 

 at one time been confounded with Tilia Mandshurica, 

 which does not reach Japan ; and the figure on page 1 13 of 

 this issue, the first which has been published, will give an 

 idea of its character and the beauty of its foliage and flow- 

 ers. This noble tree will probably thrive in the northern 



*Tilia Miqueliana, Maxiniowicz, MiH. Biol., x., 585. 

 Tilia Mandshurica, Miquel, Prol. Fl. Jap., 206, in part.— Francliet & Savatier, 

 Emtin. PI. Jap., i., 67, in part. 



states, as plants which have been growing for a few years 

 in the Arnold Arboretum appear perfectly hardy. In Europe 

 it is cultivated as Tilia Mandshurica (Kew), and as Tilia 

 heterophylla (Paris), although it does not appear to be 

 much better known there than it is in the United States. 



The second Japanese Linden is a small tree, rarely grow- 

 ing more than fifty or sixty feet tall in Hokkaido, where, 

 perhaps, it is rather less abundant than Tilia Mi([ueliana. 

 In books it appears as Tilia cordata, van Japonica, but 

 Tilia cordata is a synonym for Tilia ulmifolia, a common 

 European and north Asian species, so that unless the 

 Japanese plant is found specifically distinct, which is not 

 probable, it should be known as Tilia ulmifolia, van Japonica. 

 It is a round-headed tree with dark brown bark, slender red- 

 brown branches, glabrous, like the buds, even when young, 

 and marked with oblong pale lenticels. The leaves are 

 broadly ovate or nearly orbicular, contracted at the apex 

 into short or long broad points, and usually cordate, or oc- 

 casionally oblique, at the base, and sharply serrate, with 

 incurved callous teeth ; they are membranaceous, light 

 green and lustrous on the upper surface, light green, pale 

 or nearly white on the lower surface, which is marked by 

 conspicuous tufts of rufous hairs in the axils of the principal 

 veins, three or four inches long and two or three inches 

 broad. The peduncle-bract is from three to three and a 

 half inches long, half an inch broad, with a slender stalk 

 sometimes an inch in length. The stem and branches of 

 the flower-cluster are slender and glabrous. The sepals, 

 which are acute, slightly puberulous on the outer surface, 

 ciliate on the margins, and furnished on the inner surface 

 at the base with a large tuft of pale hairs, are shorter than 

 the narrow acute petals ; the ovary is clothed with white 

 tomentum. The fruit is oblong, or slightly obovate, and 

 covered with rusty tomentum. The petaloid-scales, which 

 Maximowicz f found developed in some of the flowers of 

 this tree, I have not seen. 



This is the only Linden cultivated by the Japanese, who 

 occasionally plant it in temple gardens, especially in the 

 interior and mountainous part of the empire. It was intro- 

 duced in 1886 into the Arnold Arboretum, and has so far 

 proved hardy. It is, however, scarcely distinct enough 

 from the European plant to make its cultivation as an orna- 

 mental tree particularly desirable. 



Elaeocarpus, a genus of the Linden family distributed with 

 many species through tropical Asia, Australia and the 

 Pacific islands, is represented in Japan by two tine trees, 

 found only in the extreme southern part of the empire. Of 

 these I only saw Elaeocarpus photinifolia, a noble tree, 

 planted in the gardens of a temple in the sea-shore town of 

 Atami, where there are the largest Camphor-trees in -Japan 

 and good specimens of a number of other southern trees. 



The Rue famile has a number of woody plants in Japan. 

 Of these, Skimmia Japonica is the only one which is much 

 known in our gardens, although Phellodendron Amurense 

 and Oriza Japonica are now found in most large botanical 

 collections. Evodia rutaecarpa, a shrub or very small tree, 

 with large, pinnate, strong-smelling leaves and terminal 

 heads of minute flowers, although not at all handsome, is 

 an interesting plant, as it is from the bark that the Japanese 

 obtain the yellow pigment which they use in dyeing. For 

 this purpose the bark, which, with the exception of the 

 thin brown outer coat marked with pale lenticels, is the 

 color of gamboge, is torn off in long strips, air-dried, and 

 sent to the large cities. Evodia ruta.>carpa, which also in- 

 habits central China and the Himalayas, is now becoming 

 rare in Japan, and I only saw it on the coast near Atami ; 

 it is said to be still abundant, however, in Aidsu and on the 

 peninsula of Yamato. The scarlet aromatic fruit is used 

 by the Japanese in medicine. 



In Xanthoxylum there are four Japanese species. Of 

 these, the most common and the most widely distributed 

 at the north and in the mountainous regions of the main 

 island at elevations of from 2,000 to 4,000 feet above the 

 sea, is Xanthoxylum piperitum. It is a bushy shrub with 



\Mi}l.Biol., X., 585. 



