Chap. III. 
GEOLOGICAL FEATURES. 
very interesting collection of the plants of Japan, 
and to whom I am indebted for much valuable in- 
formation and assistance. This plant was sent 
home in a Wardian case, and I am happy to say it 
reached England in good health, and is now in the 
nursery of Mr. Standish at Bagshot. I look for- 
ward with much interest to the effects of this intro- 
duction. Let my readers picture to themselves 
all the aucubas which decorate our windows and 
gardens, covered, during the winter and spring 
months, with a profusion of crimson berries. Such 
a result, and it is not an improbable one, would of 
itself be worth a journey all the way from England 
to Japan. 
The geological formation of this part of the 
country differs entirely from that about Nagasaki. 
The latter bears a striking resemblance to the hilly 
part of China in the same latitude ; that is, the upper 
sides of the hills are generally barren, with rocks of 
clay-slate and granite protruding in all directions. 
About Yedo we meet with quite a different forma- 
tion. (I have already described the substrata as 
exhibited by the sea-cliffs at Yokuhama.) The 
country inland consists of hill and valley ; and with 
the exception of the celebrated mountain named 
Fusi-yama, and some others in its vicinity, the hills 
are only a few hundred feet above the level of the 
sea. The soil in the valleys, in which rice is the 
staple summer crop, is of a blackish-brown colour, 
almost entirely composed of vegetable matter, and 
resembles what we meet with in a peat-bog in 
