234 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 275. 



by Dr. INIayr from Japan ; and it is the Manchurian variety, 

 known as Aralia Chinensis, or as Dimorphanthus Manchu- 

 ricus, that is usually seen in our gardens, from which the 

 American form, the type of the species, appears to have 

 pretty nearly disappeared, although the name is common 

 enough in nurserymen's catalogues. 



But of all the Araliaceoe of Japan, Acanthopanax is the 

 most interesting to the student of trees. It is a small genus 

 of about eight species of trees and shrubs, all members of 

 tropical Asia, and of China and Japan, where half a dozen 

 of them have been found. The most important of the 

 Japanese species are Acanthopanax ricinifolium and Acan- 

 thopanax sciadophylloides. Of the other species, Acantho- 

 panax innovans is a small tree, of which I saw young 

 plants only, on the Nagasendo, without flowers or fruit, 

 and which is still to be introduced. Acanthopanax acule- 

 atum, a shrub or small tree, with lustrous three or five parted 

 leaves, is much planted in Japan in hedges and is hardy 

 in southern Yezo, where, however, it has been introduced. 

 Acanthopanax trichodon, of Franchet & Savatier, a doubt- 

 ful species, which, from the description, must closely re- 

 semble Acanthopanax aculeatum, we did not see ; but Acan- 

 thopanax sessiHliflorum of Manchuria and northern China, 

 and an old inhabitant of the Arnold Arboretum, we found 

 evidently indigenous near Lake Umoto, in the Nikko 

 Mountains, on the Nagasendo and in Yezo. 



Acanthopanax sciadophylloides is still unknown in our 

 gardens, and we were fortunate in securing an abundant 

 supply of seeds. It is a handsome, shapely tree sometimes 

 forty feet in height, with a trunk a foot in diameter covered 

 with pale smooth bark and short small branches which 

 form a narrow, oblong, round-topped head and slender 

 glabrous unarmed branchlets. The leaves are alternate, 

 and are borne on slender petioles with enlarged clasping 

 bases, and four to seven inches in length, and are com- 

 posed of five, or rarely of three, leaflets ; these are oval or 

 obovate, long-pointed, wedge-shaped at the base, coarsely 

 serrate with incurved teeth tipped with long slender mucros, 

 membranaceous, dark green on the upper surface, and pale 

 or sometimes almost white on the lower, quite glabrous at 

 maturity, five or six inches long and two or three inches 

 broad, with stout petiolules sometimes an inch in length, 

 broad pale midribs and about seven pairs of straight pri- 

 mary veins connected by conspicuous transverse reticulate 

 veinlets. The flowers appear in early summer on slender 

 pedicels in few-flowered umbels arranged in terminal pani- 

 cles five or six inches across, with slender branches, the 

 lower radiating at right angles to the stem, the upper erect. 

 According to Franchet & Savatier the flowers are five- 

 parted with acute calyx-teeth, oblong-obtuse greenish white 

 petals and two united styles. The fruit, which is the size 

 of a pea, is dark blue-black, somewhat flattened or angled, 

 crowded with the remnants of the style, and contains two 

 cartilaginous, flattened, one-seeded stones. This hand- 

 some species inhabits the mountain-forests of Nikko, where 

 it is not common. Later we found it in great abundance 

 on Mount Hakkoda, in northern Hondo, and in central 

 Yezo, where it is common in the deciduous forests which 

 clothe the hill-sides. Here it apparently attains its largest 

 size, and grows with another species of this genus, Acan- 

 thopanax ricinifolium, the largest Aralia of Japan. I have 

 followed the Japanese botanists in referring this tree to the 

 Panax ricinifolia of Siebold & Zuccarini, although the plant 

 cultivated in our gardens and in Europe as Acanthopanax 

 ricinifolium or Aralia Maximowiczii is distinct from the Yezo 

 tree in the more deeply lobed leaves with much broader 

 sinuses between the lobes. A single individual similar to 

 the plant of our gardens I saw growing in the forest near 

 Fukushima, in central Japan, but, unfortunately, it was 

 without flowers or fruit. And as I was unable to find any 

 leaves on the Yezo trees with the broad sinuses of this 

 plant or any intermediate forms, it .will not be surpris- 

 ing if the forests of Japan are found to contain two 

 species of simple-leaved arborescent Acanthopanax, in 

 which case it will be necessary to examine Siebold's 



specimens to determine which species he called Panax 

 ricinifolia. 



In the forests of Yezo, where it is exceedingly common, 

 Acanthopanax ricinifolium, as it willbecalledforthe present 

 at least, is a tree sometimes eighty feet in height, with a 

 tall straight trunk four or five feet in diameter, covered 

 with very thick, dark, deeply furrowed bark and immense 

 limbs which stand out from the trunk at right angles like 

 those of an old pasture Oak, and thick reddish brown, 

 mostly erect, branchlets armed 4vith stout, straight orange- 

 colored prickles with mudi enlairged bases (see illustration 

 on page 235 of this issue)! . The leaves are nearly orbicular, 

 although rather broader than Jong, truncate at the base, 

 divided to a third of their widt^ or less by acute sinuses 

 into five nearly triangular or^jvate, acute, long-pointed 

 lobes finely serrate with i"ecurve4 callous-tipped teeth ; they 

 are five to seven ribbed, seven to ten inches across, dark 

 green and very lustrous on the^ upper surface, light green 

 on the lower surface, which is^covered, especially in the 

 axils of the ribs, with rufous pubescence. The small white 

 flowers are produced on long slender pedicels in many- 

 flowered umbels arranged in terminal compound, flat- 

 topped panicles with long radiating branches, which are 

 sometimes two feet in diameter ; they appear in August 

 and September, and are very conspicuous as they rise 

 above the dark green foliage, giving to this fine tree an 

 appearance entirely unlike that of any other inhabitant of 

 northern forests. 



Acanthopanax ricinifolium is common in Saghalin and 

 Yezo, and I saw it occasionally on the mountains of central 

 Hondo, where, however, it does not grow to the great 

 size it attains iii the forests of Yezo; here it is associated 

 with Lindens, Magnolias, White Oaks, Birches, Maples, 

 Cercidiphyllum, Walnuts, Carpinus and Ostrya. The wood 

 is rather hard, straight-grained, light brown, with a fine 

 satiny surface. In Yezo it is highly valued, and is used in 

 considerable quantities in the interior finish of houses, and 

 for furniture, cases, etc. 



Our illustration is made from a photograph taken last 

 summer on the wooded hill near Sapparo, and represents 

 a large although by no means an exceptionally large or 

 remarkable specimen. At the right of the Acanthopanax 

 two young Magnolias have sent up their trunks in search 

 for light, and on the left appear a number of stems of the 

 noble Japanese Grape-vine (Vitis Coignetiae), which have 

 climbed into its upper branches. C. S. S. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



MouTAN PEONIES. — Two Very large beds on one of the 

 lawns at Kew were, last year, planted with a collection of 

 these plants, which had been procured from Japan. They 

 are now a magnificent picture, the stems about eighteen 

 inches high, clothed with rich green leaves and each bear- 

 ing a large beautiful flower of pure satiny white with 

 golden stamens, or of red or pink or crimson or mauve. The 

 old dull purplish rose variety, so commonly cultivated, is 

 poor in comparison with the many new colors now to be 

 had. A bed of Moutan or Tree Paeonies is worth a place 

 in the very best of gardens. 



DiERviLLAS, or Weigelas, are wreathed with flowers now. 

 A bed of a variety called Abel Carriere is exceptionally at- 

 tractive. It forms a mass, a yard high and three yards 

 through, of arching branches heavily laden with deep rosy 

 red flowers. Another variety called Lemoinei has deep 

 red flowers, rather small, but borne in great profusion. 

 There are also white large-flowered varieties. These plants 

 attract much attention at this time of year. A large 

 bed of the golden-leaved D. Loogsmani aurea has been an 

 effective mass of bright color on one of the lawns for the 

 past six weeks. No shrubs are more easily managed, nor 

 do any pay better for a little cultivation than these Dier- 

 villas. 



