32 FOREST FLORA OF JAPAN. 



so. The leaflets are thick and rather rigid, two and a half to five inches long, an inch and a 

 half to two inches broad, conspicuously reticulate venulose, dark yellow-green on the upper 

 surface, pale and coated on the lower surface with pubescence, which is rufous on the stout 

 midribs and broad straight veins ; or sometimes they are bright green on the lower surface, 

 and glabrous, except on the midribs and veins. In the autumn the leaflets turn brilliant 

 scarlet on the upper surface, but remain pale on the lower. The flowers are yellow, half an 

 inch across, and nodding, and are borne in short few, usually three-flowered, subsessile terminal 

 corymbs on slender graceful pedicels. The sepals and petals are ovate or obovate, rounded at 

 the apex, and contracted at the base into narrow claws ; in the sterile flower, in which the 

 ovary is reduced to a minute rudiment, the stamens, which are inserted between the lobes of 

 the conspicuous disk, are exserted ; the filaments are filiform, and the anthers are large and 

 oblong ; in the fertile flower the stamens are rudimentary, and not longer than the ovary, 

 which is coated with thick pale tomentum and crowned with a long stout style with revolute 

 stigmas. The fruit is three inches long, with remarkably thick and hard-walled puberulous 

 nutlets, and broad falcate diverging or converging obovate wings rounded at the apex. 



Acer Nikoense is not a common, although a widely distributed, species. I saw a number 

 of plants in the temple grounds of Nikko and on the road between Nikko and Lake Chuzenji, 

 a single tree near Agematsu on the Nakasendo, and ten or twelve more on the Yusui-toge 

 above Yokokawa. According to Maximowicz,^ who distinguished this tree nearly thirty 

 years ago, it grows as far south as Nagasaki. Acer Nikoense is practically unknown in gar- 

 dens, although a well-grown specimen exists in the Veitchian collection in London, and a 

 single small plant was sent from Japan two years ago to the Rixdorf Nurseries in Berlin. A 

 figure of a leaf taken from this plant has been published in a German periodical. 



In September we hunted the Nikk5 hills in vain for a seed-bearing tree, and had given up 

 all hope of introducing this species. One day late in October, however, we sat down on the 

 rocks in the bed of a torrent far up on the side of Mount Koma-ga-take, in central Japan, to 

 eat our luncheon, when our attention was attracted by some large Maple-seeds which were 

 new to us floating in a pool at our feet. A search on the bank above discovered a single tree 

 of Acer Nikoense, from which the wind was scattering showers of seeds. If we had been a 

 day later, or had selected another resting-place, we should have missed one of the best harvests 

 we made in Japan, as this single tree yielded at least half a bushel of good seeds. 



If Acer Nikoense proves hardy and flourishes in our gardens, it wiU be particularly 

 remarked for the brilliancy of its autumn leaves, which are not surpassed in beauty by those 

 of any other tree which I saw in Japan, and which, unlike those of most trees, are only bright- 

 colored on one surface. 



1 Mel. Biol. vi. 370 ; x. 609 ; Bull. Acad. St. Petersbourg, Acer Maximowiczianum, Miquel, Arch. Neer. ii. 473, 



t. 76. — Franohet & Savatier, Enum. PI. Jap. i. 90. — Pax, 478. 

 Bot. Jahrb. vii. 205 ; Gartenflora, xli. 149. 



