The Vegetation of Japan. 
39 
being distributed in the localities touched by the cold currents. To 
give some examples: Merten si a maritima is to be seen in the 
Okhotsk region, on the coast of Manchuria down to North Corea, 
while in the main island of Japan and especially on its east coast it 
is found northward from the 38th degree of latitude. Strictly 
speaking this plant, as it grows in the Far East differs, from the 
typical form of Europe and America, in having a stouter stem, and 
larger and more showy flowers, and it is recognised as a sub¬ 
species under the name of asiatica J This sub-species is also found 
in various places on the Behring Sea. Glaux maritima, another 
arctic plant, which we meet with in various places in the British 
Isles, is distributed in Japan mainly from Yezo northward. But we 
also find this pretty seashore plant at a spot on the western coast 
of Honto, whither the plant has probably been carried by the cold 
currents. Plantago camlschatica is another plant which is to be 
found in the localities visited by the cold currents. 
The warm current has a similar influence on the distribution of 
plants; it is the important current by which our ancestors reached 
Japan in remote antiquity. 2 As this current comes into direct 
contact with the southern parts of Kyushu, Shikoku, and Kii, various 
sub-tropical plants are found in these places. To give a few examples: 
Rliizophora mucronata is found at Kagoshima (32° N.L.); Senecio 
scandens in Tosa (Shikoku) and Kii; Pteris Wallichiana in Kii; 
Asplenium Nidus in Kii and the Goto group; Ipomtza biloba (=/. 
pescaprce), in Echigo. Statice japonica which is mainly distributed in 
south-western Japan, is also to be found on the east coast as far 
north as the 38th degree of latitude. 
Leaving the coast, let us now proceed inland and see what the 
country is like. The islands comprising Japan are all mountainous; 
there is no place from which we cannot see a prominent hill. Not 
a few of the smaller islands simply consist of one or more volcanoes. 
The great majority of the high mountains are densely clad with 
luxuriant vegetation from the foot right up to the summit—often so 
densely indeed, as to render the thick mountain-forests almost 
impenetrable. The mountains are generally lofty and exhibit the 
finest scenery of the country. The grandest mountain-chains are 
to be seen in Central Japan where they form the back-bone of 
Honto, rising in places to an elevation of 10,000 feet. The higher 
peaks are made up partly of palaeozoic, partly of plutonic, and partly 
1 Cf. Journ. not., 1911, p. 222. 
2 Said to have been some 3,000 years ago. 
