September 13, 1893.] 



Garden and I^orest. 



3S5 



leaves, is cultivated in the Botanic Garden at Tokyo, and 

 has, I believe, been introduced into Europe. 



In central Yezo two noble White Oaks, Quercus crispula 

 and Quercus grosseserjata, form a considerable part of the 

 forest-growth. The Dutch botanist Miquel considered 

 them forms of one species, but Professor Miyabe, who 

 has had the best opportunity for studying these trees un- 

 der the most favorable conditions, believes them to be dis- 

 tinct in their fruit, although similar in foliage. In Quercus 

 crispula he finds "the cup deeper, embracing about half the 

 cylindrical nut, falling off with it when ripe ; while in the 

 latter, Quercus grosseserrata, the cup is hemispherical, en- 

 closing about a third of the oblong ovoid nut, which falls 

 off free when ripe." His view, too, that Quercus grosse- 

 serrata cannot be specifically distinguished from the Sag- 

 halin and IManchurian Quercus Mongolica, will probably 

 be found to be correct. Quercus crispula appears to range 

 farther south than Quercus grosseserrata, which extends 

 north to the Kurile Islands, and was not recognized by us 

 in Hondo ; in the Nikko Mountains, on the road to Lake 

 Chuzenji, we saw fine forests of Quercus crispula. In cen- 

 tral Yezo, where the two species grow side by side on the 

 hills, on low ground, near the banks of streams, Quercus 

 crispula appears the more common tree. Both have ellip- 

 tical or obovate-oblong, coarsely and irregularly lobed 

 leaves, resembling in color and texture those of the com- 

 mon Oak of Europe. The bark is pale, or sometimes dark, 

 and scaly ; and both species under favorable conditions 

 rise to a height of eighty to a hundred feet, and produce 

 stems three to four feet in diameter. Both are timber-trees 

 of the first class, and both, should they thrive in this coun- 

 try, may be expected to add beauty and interest to our 

 parks and plantations. The smaller, shorter acorn of 

 Quercus crispula appears to offer the only character for dis- 

 tinguishing the two trees ; in their port, bark and foliage 

 they were indistinguishable to my eyes. 



The fourth Japanese White Oak, Quercus glandulifera, 

 ranges in Yezo nearly as far north as Sapparo, although it 

 is only south of Volcano Bay that it is really abundant. 

 This, the common Oak of the high mountains of cen- 

 tral Japan at elevations over three thousand feet, is proba- 

 bly the most widely distributed species of the empire ; it is 

 a pretty tree, rarely more than thirty or forty feet high, 

 although on the hills above Fu-kushima, on the Nagasendo, 

 we saw specimens nearly twice that height. The leaves 

 are narrowly obovate or lanceolate-acute, glandular-ser- 

 rate, pale or nearly white on the lower surface, and from 

 one to four inches in length. The acorns are small, acute 

 and enclosed at the base only by the shallow, thin-walled 

 cups covered with minute appressed scales. Like many 

 American Oaks, this species varies remarkably in the size 

 of individuals, and in some parts of the country traversed 

 by the Nagasendo we found plants only a foot high covered 

 with acorns. This Oak was sent to the Arnold Arboretum 

 many years ago from Segrez by Monsieur Lavalle6. It is 

 perfectly hardy here, and has flowered for years, although 

 it remains a bush, and makes no attempt to grow into a tree. 



Of the other deciduous-leaved Oaks, Quercus serrata, one 

 of the most widely distributed of the Asiatic species, rang- 

 ing, as it does, from Japan to the Indian Himalaya, is com- 

 mon in dry soil near the coast below Yokohama and on 

 the foot-hills of the mountains of central Hondo. It is a 

 small tree, twenty to forty feet high, with a slender, 

 black-barked trunk and beautiful dark green, lustrous, ob- 

 long, acute leaves, their coarse teeth ending in long slen- 

 der mucros, and with small acorns enclosed in cups covered 

 with long, loose, twisted and reflexed scales coated with 

 soft pale tomentum. In Japan this tree appears to spring 

 up in waste lands in great numbers ; it is only valued for 

 the charcoal which is made from it. 



Quercus variabilis, a nobler tree of the same general 

 character, we only saw in the grounds of a temple near 

 Nakatsu-gawa, on the Nagasendo, where there were speci- 

 mens fully eighty feet high, with tall straight trunks three 

 or four feet in diameter, covered with thick, pale, corky 



bark, which is sometimes used by the Japanese for the 

 same purposes that we use the bark of the Cork Oak. The 

 leaves are oblong-oval, pointed, less coarsely toothed than 

 those of Quercus serrata, dark green and lustrous above, 

 and pale, or nearly white, below. From Quercus serrata, 

 too, it differs in the smaller cups and in their shorter, 

 thicker scales. A number of plants have been raised in 

 the Arboretum from the acorns which we picked up under 

 these trees, and if they are not hardy here in New England 

 they will certainly thrive in the middle states. 



It is impossible to know whether many of the evergreen 

 Oaks which we saw in Japan were growing naturally or 

 had been planted. In the gardens and temple grounds of 

 Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto and other southern cities ever- 

 green Oaks are the commonest trees, but we did not see 

 them growing in the forest except near temples. The spe- 

 cies most frequently seen in Tokyo and Yokohama are 

 Quercus cuspidata and Quercus glauca ; they are both large 

 and beautiful trees, said to be particularly conspicuous in 

 early spring from the bright red color of their young shoots 

 and new leaves which at that season make a charming con- 

 trast with the dark and lustrous green of the older foliage. 

 They should be introduced into our southern states, where, 

 probably, all the Japanese evergreen Oaks will flourish. 

 The wood produced by Quercus cuspidata and Quercus 

 glauca does not appear to be valued in Japan, but the 

 acorns of the latter are of considerable commercial im- 

 portance, and are cooked and eaten by the Japanese. 



Quercus acuta, whicn is also much planted in Tokyo, we 

 saw growing to the height of more than eighty feet, with 

 Quercus variabilis, in the temple-grounds at Nakatsu-gawa, 

 and also near the temple of Higane, near Atami, on the 

 coast. It is a noble tree, with ovate, acute, long-pointed, 

 dark green, thick and lustrous leaves. This noble tree has 

 been introduced into English gardens, with a number of 

 other evergreen Japanese Oaks, through the efforts of the 

 Veitches, who obtained it some years ago from their col- 

 lector, Maries. But the finest Oak-tree, and perhaps the 

 finest tree which we saw in Japan, was a specimen of 

 Quercus gilva in the temple-grounds at Nara, where there 

 are a number of remarkable specimens of this beautiful 

 species, which is distinguished by its lanceolate-acute 

 leaves, glandular-serrate only above the middle, bright 

 green above, and thickly coated below, like the young 

 branches, with pale, or slightly ferrugineous, tomentum. 

 The largest of these Nara trees was probably a hundred 

 feet high, with a trunk covered with pale scaly bark, which, 

 breast-high from the ground, girthed just over twenty-one 

 feet ; it rose without a branch, and with little diminution 

 of diameter, for something like fifty feet, and then sepa- 

 rated into a number of stout horizontal branches, which 

 had not grown to a great length, and formed a narrow, 

 cyhndrical, round-topped head. 



Of the other Japanese Oaks, Quercus Thalassica, Quercus 

 Vibrayiana and Quercus glabra, we only saw occasional 

 plants in gardens. The Quercus lacera of Blume we did 

 not see at all. C. S. S. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Tecoma Mackenii. — A small plant of this beautiful species 

 of Tecoma is now in flower at Kew, and, so far as I know, 

 this is the first time T. Mackenii has flowered in England, 

 although it has been in cultivation here many years. It is 

 a native of Caffraria, in south Africa, where it was discov- 

 ered about thirty years ago by Mr. A. White. Plants of it 

 were soon afterward sent to Kew by Mr. McKen, curator 

 of the Botanical Garden at Durban, in Natal, and it was 

 also widely distributed in the gardens of south Africa, 

 where it has since become a great favorite. When I visited 

 Grahamstown in 1887, T. Mackenii was one of the most 

 strikingly beautiful of the many plants I saw there. The 

 finest specimen had taken possession of an old trunk of 

 Erythrina Caffra and had formed a great sheaf of shoots ten 



