THE ECONOMIC PLANTS OF JAPAN— IV. 



BERRY PLANTS, 



S A PEOPLE, the Japanese care 

 little for small fruits. They 

 have not yet learned to value 

 the properties in berries which 

 we esteem so highly. Among 

 the country people it is rare to 

 find berry plants of any kind 



under culture, and when they gather and eat the 

 wild berries, it is more with a view to lengthen out 

 a meal than to please the palate by their delicacy. 



In the larger towns, and especially in the open ports, 

 it is somewhat different. There the foreigners have 

 initiated their use and culture by creating a demand for 

 berries, and this demand has gradually been augmented 

 by those of the natives who live partly in foreign style, 

 and thus a market has been established, which is usually 

 well supplied by gardeners who make the growing of 

 foreign vegetables more or less a specialty. They bring 

 their wares to certain yaoya (green-grocers) who deal in 

 foreign vegetables and fruits and sometimes also in poul- 

 try, and to these the cooks make their daily pilgrimages 

 to make selection for their masters' tables. Strawberries 

 are most in demand and best supplied. Raspberries and 

 blackberries cannot always be had. The cultivated va- 

 rieties of all three of these have been introduced from 

 America, and they are grown in the same manner as 

 with us. It is only our older varieties of small fruits 

 that we find there, which were introduced by the Coloni- 

 zation Department more than a dozen years ago — those 

 kinds which are now gradually passing from the stage 

 here. And these are likely to be the only ones that will 

 be grown there for a long time to come — until that class 

 of fruit shall have risen so high in popular estimation 

 that the demand for it will stimulate enterprising grow- 

 ers to originate or import new varieties. 



The yaoya sells the berries by weight and not by meas- 

 ure. And, by the way, would not American consumers 

 be in favor of adopting the same plan here ? If they 

 could buy their berries by the pound, instead of by the 

 so-called "quart" basket, with its bottom elevated sus- 

 piciously near to the top, they would at least know how 

 much they got for their money. Such a change could 

 work no hardship to the producer ; for what is but sim- 

 ple justice to the purchaser cannot possibly be unjust to 

 the seller. The berries could be picked and shipped in 

 light, shallow trays, which could be returned when 

 empty. The plea for the use of the American berry- 

 basket is its convenience in handling the fruit. But, if 

 on that account it has become a fixed institution, would 

 it not be well for us to copy from the Japanese so far as 

 to sell it by the weight of its contents — so much per 



ounce or per pound — rather than by the hypothetical 

 "quart." But I digress. 



It is not only small fruits that they sell by weight, but 

 also onions, potatoes, cabbage, and, in fact, nearly all 

 products of the garden. The scales used are a wooden 

 steelyard, if such an anomalous term is permissible. It 

 is a round wooden bar, on which the weights are marked 

 by brass tacks at regular distances from the fulcrum. 

 This bar is balanced by the merchandise suspended 

 at one end and a weight pushed out on the long end, till 

 equipoise is established. Their system of weights is on 

 the decimal plan. The unit is the kamnie, equal to eight 

 and one-third pounds avoirdupois, which is sub-divided 

 into 1,000 montine, and small quantities are usually sold 

 at so much per 100 momme. Strawberries are abundant 

 enough to be cheap. They sold in Tokio at from five to 

 eight cents per pound. Raspberries and blackberries 

 were comparatively scarce articles, and sold correspond- 

 ingly higher. There is nothing in the culture of these 

 which calls for special attention here, and I will there- 

 fore confine myself to brief notices of their leading wild 

 species. 



Fragaria vesca, L. ; (Jap., Jchigo), is wild in many 

 places in the country, but 1 have never heard of its being 

 cultivated or in any way improved. Where it is abund- 

 ant, the fruit is gathered by the women and children. 



Fragaria Indica, Andr. ; (Jap., Hebi-ichigo^Kucliinswa- 

 ichigo), and Fragaria chilensis, Erhr. ; (Jap., Yoshuhebi- 

 ichigo, Ora7tda-ifhigo), are also said to be found wild in 

 places, though I have not seen them. Oranda-itliigo 

 means Holland strawberry, and would indicate that this 

 species had been brought there by the Dutch, when they 

 traded with Japan three centuries ago. 



raspberries and blackberries. 



The genus rubus is represented by a long list of spe- 

 cies, many of which produce edible berries of value, and 

 a very few of which are of unusual merit. First among 

 the latter stands 



Rubus phcenicolasius, Maxim. (Ruhns occideittalis, 

 Thunb). Jap. , .S'<7r«-;V///^'(', Ui'ajiro-icliigo, Yebicara-ichi- 

 go (Fig. i). This somewhat remarkable raspberry is wild 

 in the mountains of central and northern Japan, though 

 I have nowhere found it very abundant. It is a bush of 

 from three to seven feet high. The canes are more or 

 less inclined to spread and ramble, and they are thickly 

 covered with etout hairs and weak prickles, set at right 

 angles to the stem. Foliage light green, white below, 

 resembling that of the common raspberry ; the terminal 

 leaflet is larger than the others, broadly oval, dentate or 

 doubly dentate, or even lobed. Flowers very small, 

 white ; sepals large, hairy, viscous, and after blooming 

 they close again over the fruit, and grow in size with the 



