At>felfc^i2, i§93.1 



Garden and t-'oresi 



1^3 



tern Hondo, I saw no indications that it is growing spon- 

 taneously or anywhere establishing itself in the forest 



The Japanese Rhuses are not as ornamental in the 

 autumn as our Sumachs, as none of them bear fruit covered 

 with the long red hairs which give to the fruit-clusters of 

 the American plants their dense appearance and brilliant 

 color ; but the flowers of the Asiatic Rhus semi-alata, a com- 

 mon small tree distributed from the Himalayas to Japan, 

 which are white, and produced in large terminal panicles, 

 are much more beautiful than the yellow-green flowers of 

 any of our Sumachs, and in August and September, when 

 this tree blossoms in Japan, it is a striking object in the 

 shrubby coppice-growth which so often covers the low 

 mountain-slopes. In autumn Rhus semi-alata is one of the 

 most brilliantly colored plants of the Japanese forest ; and 

 very few Japanese plants succeed as well in our climate. 

 It is from a gall formed on the leaf of this tree that the dye 

 with which married women in Japan discolor their teeth, as 

 a sign of domestic bondage, is obtained. 



Economically a more important tree, as from it the Japa- 

 nese obtained their principal supply of artificial light before 

 the introduction of American and Russian petroleum, Rhus 

 succedanea is less interesting in flower, at least, than Rhus 

 semi-alata ; it is a southern species, still much cultivated on 

 the southern islands, and in Tokyo seen only in gardens. 

 In habit, although it grows to a larger size, and in foliage 

 it much resembles our Stag-horn Sumach, although the 

 leaflets are narrower, but the flowers are in slender few- 

 flowered clusters pendulous in fruit ; and the drupes covered 

 with a thick coat of the pale waxy exudation, to which this 

 species owes its name and value, are much larger. Rhus 

 succedanea will, no doubt, flourish in the southern states, 

 and it is not improbable that it will prove hardy as far 

 north as Philadelphia ; it will certainly never be grown, 

 hawever, in the United States for the wax it might be made 

 to yield, and as an ornamental plant, while it is, of course, 

 interesting, it is inferior to the American Sumachs. 



Rhus trichocarpa, which, so far as I know, is not in our 

 gardens, should be cultivated for the extraordinary beauty 

 and brilliancy of the leaves in autumn, when they assume 

 the brightest scarlet and orange tints. It is a slender tree, 

 sometimes twenty or twenty-five feet high, and very common 

 in the forests of Yezo and on the mountains of central Hondo. 

 The leaves are eighteen to twenty inches long, with dark 

 red puberulous midribs and broadly ovate, long-pointed, 

 short-stalked, membranaceous leaflets, slender panicles of 

 flowers, which open in July, and pendulous fruit-clusters 

 with large, pale, prickly drupes ripening in August or early 

 in September. Neither the flowers nor fruit are attractive, 

 and there is nothing very distinct in the appearance of this 

 tree, except in the autumn, when, however, it is so beauti- 

 ful that if it succeeds here I believe that it will prove one of 

 the best introductions of recent years. 



Of the poisonous species of Rhus I did not see the pin- 

 nate-leaved Rhus sylvestris, which is said to be a small 

 shrub and a native of the southern part of the empire ; in 

 the Hakone Mountains, where it is reported to grow, I 

 looked for it in vain ; but our Poison Ivy is one of the 

 common plants in all the central parts of Hondo and in 

 Yezo, where it grows to its largest size and climbs into the 

 tops of the tallest trees. The leaves of the Japanese plant 

 are larger than they usually appear on the American form ; 

 ithey are thicker, too, and more leathery, and turn in the 

 autumn to even more brilliant colors, often to deep 

 -shades of crimson, which are rarely seen on this plant in 

 America. In the autumn no other vine is so handsome 

 in Japan. 



Japan is remarkably poor in arborescent Leguminosse, 

 with only three species in three genera, while here in east- 

 ern America there are twenty species in a dozen genera. 

 The best-known Japanese tree of the family is Albizziajuli- 

 brissin, a small Mimosa-like tree which grows from Persia to 

 Japan, and through cultivation has become naturalized 

 in our southern Atlantic states and in most other 

 warm, temperate countries. Familiar now in this country 



is Maackia Amurensis, which, introduced many years ago 

 from the valley of Amour, is now sometimes cultivated in 

 northern gardens. This little tree, which, under favorable 

 conditions, rises occasionally to the height of thirty or 

 forty feet, is common in all the forest-regions of northern 

 Japan and is not rare on the mountains of central Hondo. 

 The Japanese form produces larger and more numerous 

 flower-spikes and larger fruit than the mainland tree, as we 

 see it in this country ; and it is not improbable that it will 

 prove a more desirable garden-plant. In Yezo, the wood, 

 which is hard, close-grained and pale brown in color, is 

 manufactured into many small objects of domestic use and 

 is considered valuable. 



The third Japanese leguminous tree isGleditsia Japonica, 

 which, in most essential characters, much resembles our 

 North American Gleditsia triacanthos, but the leaflets are 

 broader and more lustrous, and the bark, instead of being 

 dark brown, is quite pale. Although it does not grow to 

 the great size of the American species, the Japanese Gle- 

 ditsia is, perhaps, a more beautiful tree. 



Gleditsia Japonica * (see figure 27 on page 165) is a tree 

 sixty to seventy feet in height, with a trunk occasionally 

 three feet in diameter, stout branches horribly armed with 

 flattened, often branched lustrous red-brown spines, two or 

 three inches in length. The branchlets are remarkably stout 

 as compared with those of our species, and are covered with 

 bright green bark, marked with orange-colored elevated len- 

 ticular spots. The leaves are ten to twelve inches long, with 

 broad.ovate-acute remote leaflets, or they are sometimes 

 bipinnate as on our species, with smaller leaflets. The 

 male flowers (the female inflorescence I have not seen) are 

 very similar to those of Gleditsia triacanthos, although 

 they are rather larger and the racemes are longer and less 

 closely flowered. The pods are compressed and thin- 

 valved, like those of our northern tree, ten or twelve inches 

 long and an inch and a half broad, but the seeds, instead 

 of being placed close to the ventral suture of the pod, are 

 sometimes nearer the middle and surrounded by the pulp, 

 which is more abundant in the Japanese than in the Amer- 

 ican species. This pulp is used by the Japanese in wash- 

 ing cloth, and long strings of the pods are displayed for 

 sale in many towns of northern Japan, where Gleditsia Ja- 

 ponica grows, not very abundantly, according to my obser- 

 vations, near the banks of streams at the sea-level. It is 

 common and reaches its largest size on the banks of the 

 Kisogawa and other streams of central Japan, at an eleva- 

 tion of some two thousand feet. Here it grows sometimes 

 close to the water's edge, in rich, humid soil, but as often 

 is found at a considerable distance above the water, grow- 

 ing on dry, gravelly slopes. By 'Rein this tree is said to 

 be often planted in the neighborhood of villages in Japan, 

 but I saw no specimens, except in the scientific gardens of 

 Tokyo, which did not seem to be growing naturally. 



As an ornamental tree, Gleditsia Japonica, as it appeared 

 on the mountains of Japan, is a more beautiful tree than 

 any of the species known in cultivation, and it may be ex- 

 pected to become a valuable addition to the list of exotic 

 trees suitable for the decoration of the parks and avenues 

 of the United States and Europe. C. S. S. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



Bauhinia CANDIDA. — This is the best stove-plant now in 

 flower at Kevv. It is an erect shrub six feet high, branched 

 above, with bright green bilobed leaves as large as a child's 

 hand and numerous axillary flowers. These are nearly 

 four inches across, in shape exactly like a Pelargonium or 

 Fraxinella, pure snow-white, with reddish styles, and they 

 are deliciously fragrant. This plant is a native of southern 

 India, the Kew specimen having been raised from seeds 



* Gleditsia Japonica, Miguel. Prol. Fl. J/i/., 242.— Franchet & Savalier, E)%um. 

 PI. Jap.^ i., 114; ii., 325, — Maximowicz, MH. Biol., xii., 452. 



