August 2, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



323 



doors, where the sun promptly wiUs their beautiful blossoms 

 and curls the tender petals almost before they have expanded. 

 Nasturtiums, too, suffer from being gathered while the sun- 

 light is hot upon them, but in the early morning, with the dew 

 still damp upon their leaves, they can be found nestling in the 

 shadow with half-open heads just in the right condition for our 

 vases. The fragile Heliotrope plucked at this hour will retain 

 its freshness, whereas if culled when the sun lies fierce upon 

 it, it will droop and turn black in the shadiest parlor. 



Flowers and plants wilt because water is transpired by 

 leaves and petals more rapidly than it is taken up through the 

 stem. On a dry, hot day leaves and flowers often wilt on the 

 plant. Even when not actually wilted they may contain 

 barely moisture enough to hold them in shape, and when cut 

 under these circumstances they wither at once unless they 

 are put into water instantly, when they will often become 

 more plump than they were before cutting. The stems of 

 plants when cut begin immediately to change structure, and 

 form a callus at the wound, which mterferes with the absorp- 

 tion of fluids. It is advisable, therefore, to cut the stems off 

 a second time while under water, so that all the channels 

 through which water rises may be without any obstruction. 

 As there are many substances besides water in the juice of 

 plants, some of these odd Japanese practices may have some 

 value. At least, they are worth trying. 



Hingham, Mass. M. C. Robbins. 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan. — XVIII. 



THE flora of Japan, although it is comparatively rich 

 in Euphorbiaceae, does not contain any important 

 trees belonging to this family. One species of Daphni- 

 phyllum, a Malayan genus with beautiful, lustrous, ever- 

 green foliage and handsome fruit, and now known in the 

 gardens of temperate Europe in the shrubby D. glaucesens, 

 attains the size of a small tree ; this is D. macropodum, 

 which we saw not far from Gifu, growing, as it seemed, 

 naturally. It is interesting to note that one species of this 

 tropical species, D. humile, grows as far north as Yezo, 

 where, as well as on the mountains of northern Hondo, it 

 is a common under-shrub in the forest of deciduous trees. 

 We obtained a supply of seeds of this handsome plant, 

 although it is hardly to be expected that it will be able to 

 survive our northern winters, as it will miss here the con- 

 tinuous covering of snow under which it is buried in Yezo 

 during many months of the year. 



Of the small genus of Aleurites of eastern tropical Asia 

 and the Pacific islands, one species reaches southern Japan, 

 A. cordata, which we only saw in the Botanic Garden at 

 Tokyo. This little tree has large long-stalked, three-lobed 

 leaves, inconspicuous flowers in terminal panicles, and 

 large black drupe-like fruit ; it maybe expected to grow in 

 the southern states, but it will be valued for its botanical 

 interest, and not for its beauty. And this is true of the 

 other Japanese tree of the Euphorbia family, Exccecaria Ja- 

 ponica, which may possibly prove hardy here in New 

 England, as we found it growing on high elevations on the 

 Negasendo, near Agamat-su, in central Japan, as well as 

 on the high Otome-tog, in the Hakone Mountains ; and 

 Mr. Veitch gathered specimens on Mount Chokai-zan, on 

 the north-west coast of Hondo. It is a small tree with 

 thick, firm, dark green leaves which vary from oval or 

 obovate to obovate-lanceolate, and are sometimes six or 

 seven inches long, and three-lobed fruit three-quarters of 

 an inch in diameter. 



Of the Nettle or Elm family, Japan possesses some im- 

 portant trees, although in Elms themselves the flora of 

 Japan is poor as compared with that of eastern North 

 America, where there are five well-distinguished species, 

 while in Japan there are only two ; these are both conti- 

 nental, reaching in Japan their most eastern home. In 

 Hondo Elm-trees are not common, and in that island are 

 no where such features of vegetation as they are in our 

 New England and middle states and in Europe, and it is 

 only in mountain-forests between 3,000 and 5,000 feet 

 above the sea-level that occasional small plants of Ulmus 

 campestris, with branchlets often conspicuously winged, 

 appear. In Yezo, however, this tree is much more abun- 



dant, growing on the river-plains nearly at the sea-level 

 and in the forests which cover the low hills, not infre- 

 quently becoming a prominent feature of the landscape. In 

 Sapporo, where many fine old specimens were left in the 

 streets by the American engineers who laid out the town, 

 individuals seventy or eighty feet tall, with trunks three or 

 four feet in diameter, may be seen. The broad heads of 

 graceful pendant branches reminded us of New England, 

 for this Japanese form of the Old World Elm has much of 

 the habit of the American White Elm. The portrait of one 

 of these trees, although not a large one, growing a mile or 

 two from Sapporo, appears on page 327 of this issue, and 

 gives a fair idea of the habit of this tree in Yezo. 



The second Elm of Japan grows in all the mountain- 

 woods near Sapporo. The Russian botanists have consid- 

 ered it a peculiar variety of Ulmus montana, to which the 

 name laciniata has been given, and which is principally 

 distinguished by the peculiar shape of the leaves, which 

 are often six or seven inches long, three or four inches 

 broad, coarsely serrate and often three-lobed at the wide 

 apex. It is a small tree, barely more than thirty feet tall, 

 as we saw it, and very fragrant, like our American Slippery 

 Elm, which in habit it much resembles. It is from the tough 

 inner bark of this tree that the Ainos weave the coarse 

 brown cloth from which their clothes are made. The pro- 

 cess is a simple one ; the bark is stripped from the trees in 

 early spring, and is then soaked in water until the bast, or 

 inner bark, separates from the outer in long strips, which 

 are twisted by the women into threads and are then ready 

 for use. This interesting tree is not in cultivation, I be- 

 lieve, and we reached Yezo too late to obtain its seeds. It 

 is desirable, however, that it should be brought into our 

 gardens, not only on account of the curious appearance of 

 the leaves, but that its development may be watched, for 

 when it can be compared in a living condition with the 

 European and Siberian forms of Ulmus montana, it may 

 prove sufficiently distinct to be regarded as a species. 



The Keaki, Zelkova Keaki, a member of this family, is, 

 perhaps, the largest deciduous-leaved tree of Japan ; it is 

 its most valuable timber-tree. The Keaki may be described 

 as a Beech, with the foliage of an Elm. The bark is smooth 

 and pale, like the bark of a Beech-tree, and the dense, com- 

 pact round head of slender branchlets resembles the crown 

 of that tree, while the leaves, which are large, ovate-acute, 

 coarsely serrate, and roughened on the upper surface, are 

 like those of the Elm. 



Zelkova is a genus with three arborescent species ; one 

 inhabits Crete, another the Caucasus, and the third Japan. 

 The flowers are very similar to those of the Elm, and are 

 unisexual or rarely polygamous, and are produced in early 

 spring on branchlets of the previous year, the males clus- 

 tered in the axils of the lower leaves and the females soli- 

 tary in those of the upper leaves. The fruit is a small 

 drupe, more or less irregularly oblique in shape and two- 

 beaked with the remnants of the eccentric style, with a 

 membraneous or slightly fleshy outer covering and a thin 

 hard endocarp, or stone, containing a single compressed 

 concave, horizontal seed, without albumen, the thick em- 

 bryo filling its cavity. 



Zelkova Keaki sometimes grows to the height of a hun- 

 dred feet and produces a trunk eight to ten feet in diameter. 

 Such specimens are often found in the gardens surrounding 

 temples in the large cities, and by village road-sides in the 

 interior provinces. If any wild Keakis are left in the for- 

 ests of Japan they must be rare, and I am not sure that we 

 saw this tree growing naturally, although it is everywhere 

 one of the most commonly planted deciduous trees. Large 

 specimens, which we saw on the Nagasendo, near Agam- 

 at-su, in oneof the mountain-provincesof central Hondo, and 

 a very remote region, may have been growing naturally, but 

 even this is doubtful, for the Nagasendo has been a trav- 

 eled highway for at least twelve hundred years, and a 

 thousand years ago was probably more frequented than it 

 is now. Of the range and habitat of this tree I have, 

 therefore, no idea whatever. 



