DECIDUOUS TREES AND SHRUBS OF JAPAN. 



19 



Of the six or seven species of Cornus found in Japan, C. Kousa 

 (sometimes called Benthamia japonica) and G. brachypoda are 

 now well established in British gardens, and always admired 

 when seen in flower. The Honeysuckle family, represented by 

 seven genera in Japan, has supplied some of our most beautiful 

 shrubs and climbers, notably Viburnum plicatum and Lonicera 

 flexuosa. In the Styrax family, including Symplocos, Styrax, 

 and Pterostyrax, by far the most important, horticulturally 

 speaking, are the two species of Styrax, of which one, S. Obassia, 

 with its noble foliage and lovely white flowers, is still unfortu- 

 nately very scarce. Professor Sargent compares Pterostyrax 

 hispidum with the North American Snowdrop-tree (Halesia 

 tetraptera), to which it is inferior as an ornamental tree, 

 although well worthy of a place for park and landscape effect. 

 And here I may mention the Japanese Ash, Fraxinus mand- 

 slmrica, common in the low grounds and swamps of the northern 

 island, where it rises to a height of 100 feet, with a straight 

 stem 3 to 4 feet in diameter. Its locality and surroundings are 

 suggestive of its use as a marsh tree in Great Britain. The 

 second Japanese Ash, Fraxinus pubincrvis, is as yet but little 

 known. 



Passing over a long series of Natural Orders, consisting 

 chiefly of herbaceous types, I proceed to bring under your notice 

 some of the finest of Japanese timber trees. Foremost among 

 these is a member of the Elm family, Zelkowa Keaki, which is 

 considered the most valuable in the country. It attains a height 

 of from 80 to 100 feet, with a trunk often 8 to 9 feet in diameter, 

 which is crowned by a compact head of dense foliage. Owing to 

 the presence of a crowded population, and the great value of the 

 tree for timber, it is rarely met with in a wild state. The same 

 may be said of many other trees of any economic value ; many 

 such have been planted by the inhabitants for centuries past, so 

 that when specimens of great age and size are seen it is not 

 always possible to say whether their presence is due to the hand 

 of nature or of man. It is only in the most remote districts 

 difficult of access that the best timber trees of Japan are found 

 wild. It is scarcely necessary to add that Zelkoiva Keaki was 

 introduced into this country many years ago by my father, John 

 Gould Veitch, under the name of Planera acuminata; the earliest 

 seedlings must now have attained a considerable size, and it 



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