THE CONIFERS. 81 



make it possible 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 saw but 

 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. These are Picea Ajanen- 

 sis, 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 considerable forests on low swampy ground, not much raised above the level of the 

 ocean. This appears to be the common Spruce of Saghahn 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 gar- 

 dens, we did not see growing. In many characters it resembles the Siberian Picea obovata, 

 and in the herbarium it is not easy to find characters by which it can be satisfactorily sepa- 

 rated from that species. Like the species of the White Spruce group of North America, which 

 appear to pass one into another by gradual transitions, the Spruces of northeastern Asia are 

 difficult to distinguish with the material found in herbaria, and it will only be possible to study 

 them satisfactorily when aU the various forms have been planted side by side in some arbore- 

 tum and allowed to grow to maturity. 



Of the Hemlocks found in Japan, one is northern and the other southern ; both are com- 

 mon at high elevations, and one at least forms extensive forests. The great forest, which 

 covers the Nikko Mountains at an altitude of more than 5,000 feet above the ocean, is 

 composed almost entirely of the northern Hemlock, Tsuga diversifolia, which is distin- 

 guished by its bright red bark, small leaves, and cones. This Hemlock forest, which is the 

 only forest in Hondo which seems to have been left practically undisturbed by man, is the 

 most beautiful which we saw in Japan. The trees grow to a great size, and while they stand 

 close together are less crowded than the trees in an American Hemlock forest, under which 

 no other plants can grow, and light enough reaches the forest-floor to permit the growth of 

 Ferns, Mosses, and many flowering under-shrubs which clothe the rocky slopes up which this 

 forest stretches. One of the most beautiful spots which we saw in Japan is the walk cut 

 through this forest which follows along the shores of Lake Yumoto, and I am fortunate in 

 beino' able to reproduce a photograph of it (Plate xxv.), for which I am indebted to Pro- 

 fessor Mayr, of Munich, who, during an official residence of several years in Japan, explored 

 the forests of all parts of the empire more thoroughly than any other foreigner. We found 

 Tsuga diversifolia in scattered groups on the rocky cliffs of Mount Hakkoda, in the extreme 

 north of Hondo, the most northern station which has been recorded for this tree, which is still 

 to be introduced into our gardens ; but, south of Nikko, it was replaced by the second species, 

 Tsuga Tsuga, which we saw in great beauty on Koma-ga-take, where, however, it does not 



