78 



THE ECONOMIC PLANTS OF JAPAN— II. 



and then pack them in sugar, when, after the lapse of 

 a couple of weeks, they are pronounced excellent. 

 There are several varieties of foreign importion equal 

 to those found in America. 



A stone fruit highly esteemed all over the western 

 hemisphere is known in Japan only in name. I refer to 

 the cherry. The cherry is grown by the Japanese only 

 for its blossoms, and there are numerous varieties with 

 most exquisite flowers of great size, and some of them 

 even very fragrant. But the trees yield no fruit, or 

 but a very scant crop of exceedingly small cherries, not 

 at all fit to eat. Those cherries which may occasionally 

 be found in the neighborhood of foreign settlements, or 

 at the open ports, have been introduced from abroad. 

 The fruit is not yet sufficiently known to be appreciated. 

 The only form of the cherry tree whose fruit is used is 



Prunus Buergeriana, Miq. Jap., -k?/!-?!';;? (liter- 

 ally the Dog Cherry). This large tree is found wild in 

 the mountains in most parts of Japan. The fruit is 

 small and inferior, but it is sometimes gathered and 

 pickled in salt, when it is eaten as a condiment or 



Fig. 5. Andzc Apricot. Full Size 



appetizer. The wood of this species is used for stamp 

 making. 



ZiZYPHUS VULGARIS, Lamarck. Jap., Sauchuto-nat- 

 sume. ZiZYPHUs vulgaris, var. inermis, Bunge. Jap., 

 Natsunie. JujuBE. These two forms of the jujube are 

 said to be indigenous to Japan, as well as to India 

 and western Asia. The last named form is the one 

 most commonly cultivated. It is a small tree, attain- 

 ing a height of from thirty to forty feet. While young, 

 the tree has an upright growth, with but little ten- 

 dency to spread ; but the old trees which have come 

 under mv observation have had a dense spreading top. 

 The branches are not thorny, as is the case with some 

 other species of the genus. The young shoots are 

 numerous, but short, slender and pliable, and the cas- 

 ual observer might take a twig and its leaves early in 

 the season for a pinnate leaf. The fruit is borne on the 

 current year's growth. A remarkable feature of the 

 tree is that most of these bearing shoots die back to the 



old wood each year, and in the spring new shoots 

 start again from adventitious buds in the same place, 

 producing in time a swoolen knob-like growth on the 

 end of the old branch. Here and there an unusually 

 vigorous shoot will appear and become permanent. 



The leaves are alternate, small, dark green and 

 shining above, and lighter below ; ovate, obtuse, margin 

 bluntly serrate, and the petiole is short. The flowers 

 are inconspicuous, greenish yellow, appearing in small 

 clusters in the axils of the leaves in the beginning of 

 July. The fruit ripens about the end of September. 

 The most common kind is oblong or oval, an inch long, 

 three-quarters of an inch thick, brown or russet when 

 fully ripe, and containing a cylindrical, pointed stone, 

 or hard seed. When fully ripe, it has a very sweet, 

 pleasant taste, but the flesh is dry and spongy, and it 

 deteriorates rapidly after it is picked by drying up and 

 losing what juice it has. It is abundant on fruit stalls 

 for a short time in the fall, and may prove good for 

 pickles and preserves. 



The illustration (Fig. 6) shows a bearing twig in 



flower, the leaves and 

 an average sized fruit, 

 all natural size. The 

 single flower which is 

 also represented has 

 been enlarged to show 

 ■ its structure. The tree 

 is an abundant bearer 

 and quite ornamental. 

 At first sight it does not 

 look unlike an acacia, 

 with its somewhat 

 rough bark and small, 

 two-ranked leaves. It 

 would be well to try its 

 culture here, both for 

 its fruit and for orna- 

 ment. It will probably 

 be hardy in all but the 

 coldest regions of the United States. It issaid to bemuch 

 grown in northern China and in Corea, and both of these 

 places have cold winters. The Chinese preserve the 

 fruit in honey, and then it ranks high as a delicacy. 

 The Japanese eat it out of hand as gathered, and they 

 also use it in medicine. 



I have seen an old and rather large tree of the sane- 

 buto-natsume in an old garden in Tokio. It answers the 

 description already given, except that the fruit was 

 round instead of oblong, and in color it was light red. 

 Had the color been a darker red, the fruit could easily be 

 mistaken for a small Wild Goose plum. 



Hovenia dulcis, Thunb. Jap., Keinpo-nashi. A 

 fruit-bearing twig with some leaves (natural size) is illus- 

 trated in Fig. 7. The specimen represented in the illus- 

 tration was taken from the top of an old tree some 60 or 

 70 feet high, growing in agarden in Tokio. This remark- 

 able tree is peculiar in that the flower-stems swell into an 

 irregular meaty mass, which becomes edible and quite 



