THE CONIFERS OF JAPAN. 



19 



The first glimpse of the magnificent vegetation of Japan 

 obtained by a European naturalist was afforded to KaBmpfer in 

 the 17th century, but the record he left of it was too meagre to 

 excite in those early days any interest respecting it. Nearly a 

 hundred years elapsed before another European naturalist, the 

 Swedish botanist Thunberg, landed in Japan. He stayed at 

 Jeddo for about two months, and while there and at Nagasaki 

 collected such materials as were within his reach, from which 

 he afterwards compiled his Flora japonica." Nine Conifers are 

 included in this " Flora," of which five belong to the Fir and Pine 

 tribe, and to which he gave the names of the European and 

 American species they most resemble ; three he referred to 

 Taxus, of which T. nucifera and T, macrophylla are now 

 brought under Torreya and Podocarpus respectively. The 

 ninth, which he also mistook for a member of the Yew tribe, is 

 the remarkable Sciadopitys verticillata. This was all that was 

 practically known of Japanese Conifers till the Austrian 

 physician Siebold entered the Dutch service nearly half a 

 century later, and proceeded to Japan, where he resided several 

 years. The publication of Siebold's Flora " in 1842 was the first 

 reliable intimation of the wealth of subjects that awaited intro- 

 duction from that remote quarter of the globe ; the figures and 

 descriptions are carefully executed and drawn up, but they are 

 those of cultivated plants only. Forty plates are devoted to 

 coniferous trees and shrubs, but several of the species figured 

 are not indigenous to Japan ; and as the author had to draw his 

 materials from native sources, it has, unfortunately, happened 

 that, owing to the Japanese practice of applying the same name 

 to two or more closely allied species, Siebold has, in one in- 

 stance at least, mixed up two species under one name. A 

 similar case happened to my brother, to which I shall have 

 occasion to refer presently. It should here be noted that 

 Thunberg during his stay in Japan was not permitted to leave 

 the coast, and that Siebold during his long residence could not 

 go beyond the limits assigned to him at Tokio (Jeddo) without 

 special permission, and accompanied by a military escort. The 

 botanical literature treating of Japanese Conifers during the 

 twenty years following the publication of Siebold's "Flora " con- 

 tains little else than transcriptions from that work. 



The opening up of Japan in 1859 to European intercourse, 



c2 



