266 



THE ECONOMIC PLANTS OF JAPAN— V. 



favor the growth of the largest nuts. Larger single nuts 

 may also be found on a sub-variety, which usually has 

 but one nut in each bur, the form that the French call 

 the Afarron, and which is also grown in Japan. The 

 nut of the common variety, which grows pretty much all 

 over the country, is no larger than the common Ameri- 

 can chestnut. The tree of the Taniba-Kuri differs from 

 the latter only in a rather more vigorous growth and 

 larger leaves. Besides these the Japanese have a very 

 small variety, which they call the Shibagiiri. The tree 

 is small and shrubby, the leaves very small and the nuts 

 scarcely larger than filberts. It is evidently a dwarf 

 form of the common chestnut, the result of chance or 

 culture. It is not so common as the others, though the 

 nuts can occasionally be seen in the stores. As a curios- 

 ity, it may be of interest. 



None of the Japanese chestnuts are as sweet as the 

 wild chestnuts of this country. They are drier and more 

 mealy, with 

 less taste 

 than the wild 

 chestnuts of 

 eur north- 

 ern woods. 

 Whether this 

 is due to the 

 fact that they 

 have been 

 grown in a 

 milder and 

 moister clim- 

 a t e , and 

 whether they 

 would gradu- 

 ally become like ours by continued culture here, are 

 points that cannot be determined at present ; but it does 

 not seem improbable that under the same conditions they 

 would develop the same characters as ours. 



Their nuts are greatly troubled with insects which 

 destroy the kernel, and for that reason importers of seed 

 nuts often find that but a small per cent, of what they 

 receive can grow ; and they are also afifected by a micro- 

 organism which gradually changes the kernel in a man- 

 ner sometimes called dry rot. Chestnuts are highly es- 

 teemed in Japan. They are eaten raw, boiled or roasted, 

 and enter into the composition of many native dishes 

 which are not at all unpalatable. They are also dried 

 and ground to flour, which is used for cakes, but they 

 make no bread from it. The kernels are also candied 

 and otherwise worked into various kinds of sweet meats. 

 They have a kind of dried kernels that they call Kaclii- 

 kiiri, which are used in cooking. They are prepared 

 by soaking the nuts for twenty-four hours in strong lye, 

 after which they are dried in the sun, and when the ker- 

 nels again harden, the shell is removed. This treatment 

 preserves them against insects, and makes it possible to 

 keep them in stock for a long time. They are as com- 

 mon in well-appointed grocery stores as oat meal or 

 hominy is with us. 



Fig. 2. Tamba-Kuri. Full Size. 



The trees are very commonly cultivated, and in cer- 

 tain districts, on a somewhat large scale. Nuts intended 

 for propagation are buried in the ground in winter, and 

 planted three inches deep in the spring. About 400 

 trees are grown to the acre when planted in groves. 

 They begin to bear when three years old, and at the age 

 of ten years they are expected to average half a bushel 

 of nuts to each tree, or 200 bushels per acre. 



The family of Juglandeae, or walnuts, is represented 

 by at least three indigenous species which furnish edible 

 nuts. These are Juglans regia, L. , var. sinensis, 

 Casim. {J. Japonica, Sieb. ; Pterocarya Japonica, Miq.); 

 Jap., Te-iichi-guriimi. Juglans Sieboldiana, Maxim. 

 {J. nigra, Thunb. ; J. Alandshurica, Maxim.* ; Ptero- 

 carya sorbifolia , Miq.) ; Jap., Oni-gurumi . Juglans COR- 

 DiFORMis, Maxim.; Jap., Hiine-gttrumi, Otafuku-guriimi. 



Of these three, Siebold's walnut is the most common. 

 It yields small nuts of good flavor, and is peculiar in 

 that they are borne in large clusters, a dozen or more 

 being often grown in a bunch. The reader is referred 

 to the December number of The American Garden for 

 excellent illustrations and description. The other two 

 species are more rare. None of them are cultivated to 

 any extent. It is very seldom that one finds the nuts 

 offered for sale. They are utilized when found, but at- 

 tract no special attention. 



The hazelnuts are represented by two species ; Cory- 

 Lus heterophylla, Fisch.; Jap., Hashibami, and C. 

 ROSTRATA, Ait., var. Sieboldiana (C heterophylla, DC; 

 C. rostrata, Maxim.); Jap., Tsimo-Hasltibaini. 



Both are wild in the mountains and foot-hills all over 

 the northern portion of the country. The first named, 

 especially, is very abundant in some places. Though 

 the nuts of both are gathered and eaten, I have never 

 known them to be cultivated. A bearing twig of C. ro- 

 strata var. Sieboldiana is illustrated in Fig. 3. In gen- 

 eral appearance the two species can scarcely be told 

 from each other. C. rostrata blooms about two weeks 

 before C. heteropliylla ; it has catkins two to four inches 

 long, with brown scales and dark purple anthers. C. 

 heterophylla, on the other hand, has smaller catkins and 

 bright yellow anthers, giving the bush a brighter look 

 when in bloom. The nuts of both are badly attacked by 

 insects, and neither of them compare in size and quality 

 with cultivated varieties of C. Avellana, the filbert. 



Ginkgo biloba, L. [Salisburia adiaiitifolia. Smith); 

 Jap., Icho, Cinnan-no-ki. This tree, by no means a 

 stranger in this country, belongs to the Coniferae. It is 

 one of the finest trees indigenous to Japan. When al- 

 lowed to take its natural growth, it invariably has a 

 broad, dome-shaped head, symmetrically developed, the 

 dense mass of branches being nearly equally distributed 

 about a central axis. It does not grow as tall as many 

 other conifers, seventy to eighty feet being the usual 

 height of old trees, and they rarely exceed a hundred 



* Botanists commonly regard Juglans Mandshurica as a distinct 

 species. See Maximowicz's illustrated account of Japanese walnuts 

 Bull. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg, viii. 630 (1872) ; also this journal 

 Dec. 1890, 708, and March, 1891, 178. — Ed. 



