DECIDUOUS TREES AND SHRUBS OF JAPAN. 



15 



I need not say much, but would like to draw your attention 

 to two rare species, Acer nikJcoense and A. Myabei, the latter 

 of which has only been known to science since 1888. A. nikJco- 

 ense is in some respects the more striking tree of the two ; it 

 attains a height of from 40 to 50 feet, with a trunk of 15 to 

 18 inches in diameter ; its ternate leaves, with dark green upper 

 and pale grey-green lower surface, which turn to a brilliant 

 scarlet in the autumn, cannot fail to make it one of the most 

 ornamental of Maples : these characters, together with the broad 

 "keys "of its fruit, mark it as thoroughly distinct. Although 

 this tree has a wide distribution in probably all the islands, it is 

 by no means common ; it is much isolated, standing singly at 

 intervals, but why so cannot yet be explained. I saw only one 

 bearing seed, and this was literally covered with its characteristic 

 fruit. Maries sent it to us about fifteen years ago, and one tree 

 at Coombe Wood, and probably the only one in England, is now 

 about 15 feet high ; thus far it confirms the high opinion I 

 formed of it in its native country. Acer Myabei, discovered by 

 Professor Myabe, the eminent Japanese botanist attached to the 

 college at Sapparo, is not much unlike the Norway Maple, 

 A. platanoides. It attains a height of from 30 to 40 feet, and 

 forms a broad round-topped handsome tree that will in all 

 probability prove hardy in this country. 



Of other rarer Maples, Acer Tschonoski, a small bushy tree 

 from 15 to 20 feet high, and A. capillipes, with foliage turning to 

 deep scarlet in autumn, are still desiderata in this country. I 

 have seen the latter seed freely, and a good quantity was obtained, 

 but, unfortunately, the seed appears to lose its vitality during the 

 long transmission from its native country. 



When we consider that upwards of twenty-five species of 

 Acer are found in Japan, and that several of these species 

 have diverged into many varieties, it is not surprising that the 

 Maples should form so prominent an ingredient of the deciduous 

 forests of the country as they do. The remarkable fact concern- 

 ing them is, that so many forms, with foliage so strikingly 

 different, should be aggregated within so limited an area. If we 

 glance through the various forms of leaves in A. argutum y 

 A. carpinifolium, A. cratcegifolium, A. trifidum, A. palmatum, 

 A. nikJcoense, and compare them with the commoner forms as 

 seen in A. pictum, A. rufinerve, A. diabolicum, and others, we 



