12 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



DECIDUOUS TREES AND SHRUBS OF JAPAN. 



By Mr. James H. Veitch, F.R.H.S. 



[Bead March 13, 1894.] 



No country or region within the north temperate zone possesses 

 within so limited an area an arborescent flora so rich and so varied 

 in its ingredients as Japan, and as a natural consequence from 

 no other country of like extent have our gardens and parks been 

 enriched with so many and so beautiful trees and shrubs, both 

 evergreen and deciduous, as have been introduced from the realm 

 of the Mikado. Without doubt this exuberant vegetation is due 

 to the geographical position of the country, combined with its 

 configuration, its extensive seaboard, and its remarkable mountain 

 systems, all of which conduce in every way to the presence and 

 growth of a luxuriant vegetation, and which, moreover, aided by 

 a climate that to a European may seem at times too humid for 

 personal comfort, favours in the highest degree the productive- 

 ness of the soil. As a comparison of the climates of Great 

 Britain and Japan has already been fully discussed, and their 

 most obvious differences as affecting the hardiness in this country 

 of the trees and shrubs indigenous to Japan have been brought 

 under the notice of the Fellows of the Society, I need not here 

 make further remarks on the subject than to refer you to the 

 Report of the Conifer Conference, page 22, where the differences 

 are stated. 



During my recent travels in Japan I was fortunate enough 

 to meet with Professor Sargent, Director of the Arnold Arboretum 

 at Harvard, near Boston, U.S.A., one of the greatest living 

 authorities on dendrology, and with him I made several ex- 

 cursions to localities of especial interest as regards the indi- 

 genous trees and shrubs found wild. The richest deciduous 

 forests are in the hilly districts lying in the centre of the main 

 island. Here, at elevations of from 2,000 to 5,000 feet, the 

 number of species to be found within the space of a few miles is 

 very great, and to a somewhat less extent similar phenomena 

 occur in parts of Hokkaido, the northern island. In these 

 districts, owing to the great humidity of the climate, the arbo- 

 rescent vegetation attains a luxuriousness and rapidity of 

 growth unknown in this country. 



