1895.] Sargent's Studies of ine Forests of Japan. 1051 
tropical and subtropical in the character of its vegetation, 
which, moreover, is still imperfectly understood. In this nar- 
row eastern border of Asia, there are now known 241 trees, 
divided among 99 genera. The extra Japanese portion of the 
region contributes but little to the enumeration. In Saghalin, 
Fr. Schmidt found only three trees which do not inhabit Yezo, 
and in Manchuria, according to Maximowicz and Schmidt, 
there are only eighteen trees which do not also occur in Sag- 
halin or the northern Japanese islands. In the four islands of 
Yezo, Hondo, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, therefore, we now find 
220 trees divided among ninety-nine genera, or only five less 
than occur in the immense territory which extends from 
Labrador to the Rio Grande, and from the shores of the Atlan- 
tic to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. Neither Cycas 
revoluta nor Trachycarpus (Chamaerops) excelsa is included in 
the Japanese list, as the best observers appear to agree in 
thinking that these two familiar plants.are not indigenous to 
Japan proper. I. have omitted, moreover, a few doubtful 
species from the Japan enumeration, like Fayus japonica Maxi- 
mowicz and Abies umbellata Mayr, of which I could learn 
nothing in Japan,so that it is more probable that the number 
of Japanese trees will be increased than that any addition will 
be made to the silva of eastern America.” 
That the moist and equable climate of Japan is favorable to 
the growth of woody plants, is shown by the fact that very 
nearly ten per cent. of the species of Anthophytes and Pteri- 
dophytes are trees. If we consider the shrubs also, the propor- 
tion of ligneous species is still more remarkable, being almost 
exactly twenty-two per cent. 
“The aggregation of arborescent species in Japan is, how- 
ever, the most striking feature in the silva of that country. 
This is most noticeable in Yezo, where probably more species 
of trees are growing naturally in a small area than in any 
other one place outside the tropics, with the exception of the 
_lower basin of the Ohio River, where, on a few acres in south- 
ern Indiana, Professor Robert Ridgway has counted no less 
than seventy-five in thirty-six genera. Near 
Sapporo, the capital of the island, in ascending a hill which 
