404 Tokutaro I to.—A Short Memoir of I to Keisukt, 
spent at Nagasaki, from the first day to the last, in the spring 
of the following year, was occupied in botanical work with 
the German botanist. We can well picture to ourselves how 
delightful he must have found such an intercourse. At this 
time, von Siebold occupied a house in a part of Deshima 
known as Hanabatake (the Garden Ground), about one cho 
(60 ft.) square filled with plants native and foreign, grown 
for examination. The beds were arranged by von Siebold 
himself in rows symmetrically placed opposite each other, 
and must have presented a very agreeable appearance. The 
house was an ordinary upper-storied Japanese dwelling. The 
venerable doctor went there daily to prosecute his studies. 
At this time there was a gate at the entrance to Deshima 
occupied by a guard ( saguriban —examining watch) consisting 
of several yakunin 1 , who searched the folds and sleeves of 
every person who passed in or out. Ito was allowed to carry 
his herbaria and packets of plants in and out, but these had 
to be searched each time; in fact scientific investigations were 
then carried on under many difficulties scarcely realizable by 
men of science at the present day. Among Ito Keisuke’s 
fellow students at Nagasaki were Ko Ryosai, Takano Choyei 2 , 
Oka Kennosuke, Kaku Saichiro, and Hayashi Dokai. 
After a stay of some six months Keisuke was recalled 
home by family affairs. Herr von Siebold was sorry to lose 
him, and gave him as a farewell gift a treasured copy of 
Thunberg’s Flora Japonica , bidding him use it diligently as 
a help to his studies. His pupil passed through Kiushu and 
Banshu, collecting plants on the way, and on reaching Nagoya 
resumed the practice of medicine, but whenever he could find 
time read Thunberg diligently and made it the foundation 
of his further studies, in the first place collating the Latin 
names with the Chinese and Japanese names of native plants, 
so as tp adjust and complete their nomenclature. 
With the aid of Thunberg’s work, and in the light of the 
1 Rather a European than an ordinary Japanese designation of a Bakufu official. 
2 Takano Choyei was a man of considerable ability. He was among the first to 
recognize the value of the English alliance. He was prosecuted and finally com¬ 
mitted suicide. He was posthumously raised to the fourth class last year.—K.M. 
