JAPANESE PLANTS AND GARDENS. 



15 



Conandron ramondioides is a fairly well-known plant by now, though 

 its culture is hedged round by a supposed difficulty. It grows in shady 

 crannies of the rocks at moderate elevations, and continues to spread over 

 the surface of the cliff after the manner of a Ficus, seeming to demand no 

 further sustenance than that of the bare stone, till at last, as at Kamakura, 

 it forms a solid uniform curtain across the precipice. Sunshine and 

 surface-moisture must be avoided. The plant, if moved at the proper time, 

 should prove quite hardy. 



Dendrobium moniliforme. — A very pretty little white-flowered dendrobe 

 which succeeds well in England as a perfectly hardy terrestrial orchid, if 

 accorded the precise soil and dry, shaded situation demanded by Jankcea 

 Hcldreichii. 



Aiujrcecum falcatum will probably require the same treatment. 



Anemone cemua has been exhibited before the R.H.S. The common 

 Japanese anemone, it is a worthless plant, being a dingy-coloured species, 

 nearly allied to pratensis. 



Daphne Genkiua and D. odor a variegata are both rare and beautiful 

 plants, which, if imported from the frost-ridden plain of Tokio, I have 

 found to be perfectly hardy and satisfactory in cultivation, though D. 

 Genkwa is a native of the warmer parts of Southern Japan and China. 



Camellia japonica reaches great dimensions in Japan, and offers 

 every indication of hardiness. It might almost be employed in England 

 as a forest tree, in gcod soil and a sheltered yet sunny woodland situation. 

 It presents a very glowing aspect when crowded with its enormous single 

 flowers of ruby red. 



Camellia Sasanqua. — This exquisite shrub has caused some dis- 

 appointment over here from defective knowledge of its habits. It is never 

 a tall nor a robust shrub, but invariably slender and straggling in growth, 

 forming a loose-growing little bush of three feet or so in height, from 

 which is thrown up one or more tall and graceful growths perhaps six or 

 seven feet in height. The large single flowers, like big beautiful dog-roses, 

 are borne abundantly in October and November. My own plants are 

 happily in perfect health. 



Schizocodon soldanelloides. — Much of the difficulty attending the 

 culture of this species is owing to the fact that well-rooted plants are so 

 rarely sent over. The schizocodon is a typical Japanese alpine, being found 

 only at very high elevations, in company with Diapensia lapponica and 

 Primula Beidii. Its Japanese name is ' Iwa-kagami,' or 1 Mountain-mirror,' 

 the shape of its leaves resembling that of the Japanese kagami, or mirror. 

 (The prefix 1 Iwa ' almost invariably denotes an alpine, as ' Iwa-Tabako ' for 

 ' Conandron,' ' Iwa-sakura,' ' rock cherry,' for Primula and Androsace 

 indiscriminately.) I never saw the schizocodon in situ, but one evening, 

 attending one of the Japanese night-fairs in the streets of the capital, 1 

 saw the plant offered for sale in a miniature garden, and at once ordered 

 two hundred specimens to be sent to my house. The next day the two 

 hundred arrived, robust as cabbages, thus showing that Japanese nurseries 

 experience no difficulty in its culture. But alas ! they were sent down to 

 Yokohama to be nursed awhile, previous to departure, and in the torrid 

 heats of that pestilential place they all died. No one who has only seen 

 the poor blossoms which the plant bears over here can have any conception 



