494 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number. 301. 



principal highways of the empire are shaded by avenues of 

 these Pines, except where Cryptomerias replace them when 

 mountains are crossed. Of the two species the Black Pine, 

 Pinus Thunbergii, appears to be the most commonly culti- 

 vated, and grows to the larger size. Of its distribution and 

 appearance growing naturally I was able to get no idea, as 

 all the plants I saw had evidently been planted by man. It 

 is of this species that the plantations of the coast are mostly 

 formed, although the two species are generally found mixed 

 together in all plantations ; and it is this species which is 

 usually selected by the Japanese gardener when he wants 

 to make the branches of a Pine-tree cover an arbor or hang 

 suspended over the sides of a moated wall. It is this spe- 

 cies which is found in every garden and which is most re- 

 vered by the Japanese. Pinus Thunbergii is one of the 

 most picturesque of Pines, with a broad head of stout, con- 

 torted, somewhat pendulous branches, often growing to 

 the'height of eighty feet, and producing trunks three feet 

 through. Its dark, deeply furrowed bark, darker-colored 

 and thicker leaves and white buds serve to distinguish it 

 from the Red Pme, Pinus densiflora, which is a tree of high 

 elevations, and which, although planted in large planta- 

 tions and by the sides of highways, does not appear 

 to be such a favorite in gardens as the Black Pine. 

 The Red Pine we saw growing wild high up on Mount 

 Koma-ga-take, in central Hondo, and on the Nikko 

 Mountains, where, at about three thousand feet over the 

 sea-level, it is not rare. It is a more slender tree than the 

 Black Pine, with thinner, lighter green leaves. The bark 

 on the upper part of the trunk and on the main branches 

 is light red, separating in thin scales, so that a forest of 

 these trees presents a bright and cheerful appearance. 

 Several varieties of the two species recognized by Japanese 

 gardeners are described by Mayr, who also found what he 

 thought was a hybrid between them.* The wood of the 

 two species is very similar, and, apparently, is not dis- 

 tinguished in Japanese lumber-yards. It is coarse-grained, 

 resinous and moderately strong, and is used in great 

 quantities in all sorts of coarse construction, and as fuel, 

 the rapid growth of the trees on soil too poor to produce 

 more valuable crops to advantage rendering it exceedingly 

 cheap. These two Pines have long inhabited our gardens, 

 where they are hardy and grow with great rapidity, some 

 of the oldest plants of the Red Pine here already begin- 

 ning to show the picturesque habit which in their native 

 country is the charm of these trees. 



The other Pines of Japan belong to the group in which 

 the species produce their leaves in clusters of fives. The 

 largest and the most widely distributed is Pinus parvifiora, 

 a beautiful small tree of high mountain-forests, through 

 which, at elevations above five thousand feet over the sea- 

 level, it is found scattered, either singly or in small groves, 

 sometimes growing to a height of sixty or seventy feet, 

 although it is usually much smaller. In those parts of 

 Japan which we visited, it was most common and grew to 

 the largest size on the slopes of Mount Hakkoda, in north- 

 ern Hondo, where its dark pyramidal heads of slender 

 spreading branches, rising above the forests of Oaks and 

 Beeches, break the sky-line, just as its relative, our eastern 

 White Pine, raises its noble head high above the Oak for- 

 ests of New England. The wood of Pinus parviflorais soft, 

 straight-grained, light-colored and of considerable value, 

 but so difficult to obtain that it is little known or used by 

 the Japanese. This beautiful Pine flourishes in our gardens, 

 where it appears to be perfectly at home and where it 

 grows rapidly and every year covers itself with cones. 



In southern Yezo, a second species of the same group, 

 Pinus pentaphylla, has been distinguished by Mayr. This 

 is an exceedingly rare tree, found in a few isolated situa- 

 tions and distinguished from Pinus parviflora by its longer 

 cones and stouter leaves. We only saw a cultivated tree at 

 the hot-springs of Kakumi, near the shore of Volcano Bay, 

 being prevented by bad weather from reaching a small grove 



* Die Abietineen des Jnpanischen Reiches. 



ofthese trees growing on the mountains in the neighborhood. 

 This Pine has not been introduced into our gardens, where 

 it may be expected to flourish. 



The fifth Japanese Pine is interesting from the fact that 

 it is the only Japanese Conifer which grows naturally in 

 North America. It is the Pinus pumila of Regel, a species 

 so similar to the Stone Pine of Europe that by many au- 

 thors it has been considered a variety of that tree. We 

 only saw it on the summit of Mount Hakkoda, where it 

 forms, at six thousand feet above the sea-level, impenetra- 

 ble thickets a few feet in height and hundreds of acres in 

 extent ; it occurs on the summits of some of the high moun- 

 tains of Yezo, ranges north through Saghalin and eastern 

 Manchuria to Kamtschatka, and by the Kurile Islands 

 reaches those of the Alaska coast. 



Of Spruces, there appear to be four species in Japan, 

 where, except, perhaps, in some parts of Yezo, they are 

 exceedingly rare. The first, Picea polita, we only saw in 

 two or three individuals in the Nikko Mountains, on the hills 

 below Lake Chuzenji. The trees were small, much torn 

 and stunted by the wind, and of such a miserable appear- 

 ance that it was difficult to realize that the young trees in per- 

 fect health and beautywhich decorate our gardens belongto 

 the same species. For the second Spruce of the mountain- 

 forests of central Hondo, to which it appears to be con- 

 fined, Mayr proposes the name of Picea bicolor, this specific 

 name having, he finds, been first used by Maximowicz for 

 this tree. This is the beautiful Spruce with blue-green 

 leaves, silvery white on the under surface, which is usually 

 cultivated under the name of Picea Alcockiana, and which 

 is easily distinguished in the spring by the bright red color 

 of the young shoots. 



It is not my purpose to discuss here the synonymy of the 

 Japanese Firs and Spruces, upon which such a mass of 

 names have been heaped in almost hopeless confusion, 

 that only a critical examination of all the specimens which 

 have been studied by European botanists can make it pos- 

 sible to reach any useful conclusions on the subject, and I 

 shall only speak of the trees as I saw them growing in the 

 forests of Japan. Picea bicolor, of which we only saw 

 three or four specimens, is evidently a rare and local tree, 

 found only at high elevations, scattered through the Oak 

 and Beech forests, and, like Picea polita, presenting in its 

 home a wretched and forlorn appearance. The leaves are 

 nearly equally four-sided, and the cones are four to six 

 inches long, with narrow, pointed, more or less laciniate 

 scales. These two species, so far as I was able to observe, 

 are the only Spruces which grow on the island of Hondo, 

 the other species finding in Yezo their most southern home. 

 They are Picea Ajanensis, a tree with smaller cones than the 

 last, and short, broad, flat leaves, dark green above and 

 pale on the lower surface. This is the common Spruce of 

 Yezo, occurring on the hills near Sapporo, which is the only 

 place where I saw it, in isolated individuals scattered 

 through the forests of deciduous trees. According to 

 Mayr, this tree forms in the western part of the island con- 

 siderable forests on low swampy ground, not much raised 

 above the level of the ocean. This appears to be the com- 

 mon Spruce of Saghalin and of the Manchurian coast. 



The fourth species, Picea Glenhi, discovered by F. 

 Schmidt in Saghalin, has been found in a few situations in 

 southern Yezo. This tree, which is still to be introduced 

 into our gardens, we did not see growing. In many charac- 

 ters it resembles the Siberian Picea obovata, and in the 

 herbarium it is not easy to find characters by which it can 

 be satisfactorily separated from that species. Like the 

 White Spruce group of North America, in which species 

 appear to pass one into another by gradual transitions, 

 the Spruces of north-eastern Asia are difficult to distinguish 

 with the material found in herbaria, and it will only be 

 possible to study them satisfactorily when all the various 

 forms have been planted side by side in some arboretum 

 and allowed to grow to maturity. 



Of the Hemlocks found in Japan, one is northern and 

 the other southern ; both are common at high elevations, 



