THE ECONOMIC PLANTS OF JAPAN— XL* 



PLANTS USED FOR SALADS AND GREENS (CONTINUED). 



A RALIA CORDATA, Thunb. (A. ediilis, Sieb. and 

 /\ Zucc); Jap., Udo. The young shoots are 

 £ ^ highly popular, and a really good spring vege- 

 table The plant grows wild all over Japan, 

 and prefers a dry, porous soil. I have seen it 

 grow in abundance on the elevated plain about the vol- 

 cano Asama-yama, where the soil consists of volcanic 

 ash and disintegrated scoria. It is a coarse perennial, 

 four to six feet tall, with cylindrical stem and large, 

 compound (sometimes opposite) leaves, rather rough ; 

 leaflets dentate, or doubly dentate. The flowers are 

 small, greenish-white, in little umbels forming part of 

 large branching panicles, which terminate the branches. 

 Flowers five-parted. Fruit a black berry, which ripens 

 in October. The illustration shows a single leaflet, nat- 

 ural size ; leaf and flower-stalk reduced ; single flower 

 enlarged. 



It is cultivated extensively, but there are no improved 

 varieties.- The growers hold that the seed from wild 



Fig 



ArALIA CORDATA (UoO) 



plants produce more vigorous shoots than the seed from 

 plants under culture. Every spring wild seed is sown 

 in some out-of-the-way corner, and the seedlings are left 

 * Copyright by the Amhor. 



to care for themselves during three years. In the spring 

 of the fourth year the plants are replanted a foot apart 

 in rows two and one-half feet apart, this time in good 

 soil, and their growth is encouraged as much as possible. 

 At the end of November the asparagus-like roots are 

 dug and transferred to a sheltered pit two or three feet 

 deep, packed close. They are first covered with a 

 thin layer of soil, then with night-soil, and finally loose 

 earth is poured in till level with the surface. In eight 

 to twelve weeks, according to the latitude, the shoots 

 appear at the surface, when they are cut close to the 

 roots, a portion of the bed being torn away each day. 

 They are then tied in small bundles and marketed. The 

 second illustration shows these shoots reduced in size. 

 As found at the greengrocers, well-grown shoots are 

 about two feet long, as thick as a man's thumb, perfect- 

 ly white, succulent, quite tender. For table they are 

 stewed and served with sauce, or otherwise prepared by 

 the Japanese cook in an agreeable and palatable dish. 



Foreigners sometimes 

 call them Japanese as- 

 . - . paragus. While they 



. ■ : „ ' ^ have no pronounced 



. ■, taste, they have a fla- 

 • ^ ' . , < .. vor that is not easily 



pescribed, Thehardi- 

 ' ^ - - ness and ready cul- 



\ tureof thisplantcom- 



mend it for trial here. 

 Coming early in the 

 If : spring, it may prove 



acceptable. In its 

 f native land the shoots 

 ,( are cut in lengths of 

 7 four or five inches, 

 7" and served somewhat 

 ■y as asparagus is served 

 r here. 



jr ArALIA SPINOSA.L., 



/ var.cANEScENS, Fran. 

 ■ and Sav. {A. canes- 

 f<?Kj-, Sieb. and Zucc); 

 Jap. Tara-no-ki. This 

 species is also wild in 

 Japan. Though it 

 cannot be classed as 

 an important econo- 

 mic plant, the fact 

 that the young leaves are gathered and used as greens 

 by poor people, being boiled and served with vinegar and 

 s/ioyii, entitles it to mention here, as among the means of 

 life which necessity has shown to the needy Japanese. 



