Zelkova 921 



near houses and temples, which often have clean stems due to pruning. Mayr, 

 however, records a forest tree, 123 feet in height, with a stem 33 inches in diameter, 

 and clean of branches to 57 feet. Dupont,^ who gives many interesting particulars 

 concerning this species, states that it ascends in Kiushiu to 3000 feet on northern 

 slopes, and in Honshu to 4000 feet on southern slopes ; and that it requires for its 

 best development a deep, permeable, and rich soil, such as is found on alluvial tracts. 

 It thrives well also on volcanic soils and sandy loams, but does not succeed on poor 

 sands or on stiff clays. Dupont states that on suitable soils and situations it grows 

 remarkably straight, whether isolated or crowded in the forest, attaining on soil of 

 middling quality at 1600 feet elevation in the latitude of Fuji-yama, 5 feet in girth at 

 60 years old, 9 feet at 1 20 years, and 1 2^ feet at 1 80 years. The growth of isolated 

 trees on alluvial soil is still more rapid, the annual rings averaging ^ inch in width. 

 He advocates the planting of this tree on account of its rapid growth and the value 

 of its timber, which he considers to be superior to that of oak. (A. H.) 



It seems strange that this tree, whose wood is more highly valued by the 

 Japanese than any other hard wood, should be planted on so small a scale in Japan. 

 Probably it requires too many years to come to maturity to induce private persons to 

 plant it when bamboo, Cryptomeria, and pine offer so quick and certain a return. 

 But though I saw no plantations of Keaki,^ I believe the Government are making 

 efforts to preserve and increase the area under this species. It is said to be found 

 wild in the south up to about 5000 feet, and in the north up to about 2000 feet. It 

 also grows wild in Hokkaido, but not to so great a size as in the north-eastern districts 

 of the main island which are famous for their large trees. I heard of, but was not 

 able to see, one said to be the largest in Japan at Sendai. Rein ^ speaks of one 

 which was felled at Meguro, near Tokio, in 1874, and measured 11.7 metres in girth 

 at one metre high. 



The largest I measured myself was growing by the side of the Nakasendo road, 

 at a place called Hideshiwa, near the village of Sooga in Shinano, in a grove of trees 

 just below the road, and may have been wild or planted. It was about 115 feet 

 high and 20 feet in girth, dividing at about 20 feet, into two tall upright limbs, each 

 ID feet or more in girth, and seemed to contain about 800 to 1000 cubic feet of timber. 

 Close to it was a very large ^Esculus, and on the other side of the road another Keaki, 

 113 feet high, by 13 feet 6 inches in girth, clean and straight to about 70 feet high. 



Such trees as these are found only where they have been crowded when young, 

 the tendency of the species being to assume a branching and spreading habit, so that 

 most of these which are seen planted singly are thick and spreading rather than tall. 



In the forest the Keaki grows scattered among other trees, and is said by the 

 author of the handbook on Japanese forestry to love calcareous soils. I never saw 

 any such soil in Japan, but it seemed to grow equally well on all kinds of soil provided 

 it is deep and moist. As to the age to which the tree attains I cannot speak 

 positively, but it looks like a very long-lived tree. Its bark is smooth and greyish 

 in colour, somewhat like that of the beech. It seeds freely and reproduces itself 



1 Essences Forest, du Japan, 45 (1879). 



2 The Japanese name of this species is Keyaki, occasionally spelled Keaki. ^ Industries of Japan, 225 (1889). 



IV 2 E 



