102 
The Garden Magazine, October, 1923 
the aesthetic ratherthan the utilitarian spirit 
that this family most strongly appeals. 
Azaleas that Glorify Japanese Mountain¬ 
sides and American Gardens 
I N THE forests and far up on the moun¬ 
tainsides in Japan grow two species of 
broad-leaf Rhododendron ( R. APetternichii 
and R. brachycarpum ) which are handsome 
in foliage and flower and most suitable for 
the gardens of New England and elsewhere, 
though they are but little known. It is, 
however, in species of Rhododendron with 
rather small and deciduous leaves and fa¬ 
miliarly known as Azaleas that Japan is so 
astonishingly rich. From the extreme south 
northward far into Hokkaido on mountain- 
slopes, in thickets and on the edge of forests 
grows the red-flowered R. 
obtusum var. Kaempferi. 
This is perfectly hardy 
in this country as far 
north as Boston, Mass., 
and is one of the finest 
plants ever introduced 
into New England gar¬ 
dens. Though known for 
more than two centuries 
and everywhere abund¬ 
ant in Japan, it was not 
introduced into cultiva¬ 
tion in the West until 
1892 when Professor Sar¬ 
gent sent seeds to the 
Arnold Arboretum. 
How it was that earlier 
collectors omitted to send home seeds is a mystery. 
Another species (R. japonicum) with large flame colored flow¬ 
ers grows with Kaempfer’s Azalea in many places, but nowhere 
is this more common than round Mt. Fuji and in theNikko 
region. This is also a perfectly hardy shrub in the Arnold 
Arboretum where each year it puts forth a wealth of blossoms. 
On the higher slopes of the mountains in the south of Japan 
grows a small-flowered Azalea of which the forms amoena and 
obtusa have long been familiar in Western gardens. 
By selection and raising from seeds and vegetative sports 
during the last hundred years there has been originated in the 
town of Kurume a race of Azaleas remarkable for the exquisite 
color of their flowers which include white, pink, and red of won¬ 
derful purity. Many have hose-in-hose flowers, that is the calyx 
has become petaloid and the flowers are of two distinct colored 
whorls with the stamens and pistil normal. 1 his most charming 
of all races of Azaleas is only just becoming known to us. 
There are many other species, so many in fact that there is a 
book written about them; all are meritorious and not least 
R. quinquefolium whose pure white bells illumine the margins 
of woods and the dark recesses of ravines high up in the Nikko 
region. In truth much of the brilliant color of the landscape 
in Japan during early summer is due to the abundance of Azalea 
bushes which flourish everywhere except in the depths of the 
forests. One of the very first plants sent to Europe was Azalea 
indica which reached Holland by way of Batavia before 1680 
and was subsequently lost; one of the last was the Kurume 
Azaleas: and in no groups of plants with handsome flowers has 
Japan given more freely than of her Azaleas—the pride and 
glory of her scrub-clad mountainsides. 
The Shy Mayflower and Wistaria Which Knows no Restraint 
A MAYFLOWER ( Epigaea asiatica ) grows on the moun¬ 
tains of north Japan and is just as coy and lovely as its 
American sister. Several species of heather-like Phyllodoce 
LITTLE-KNOWN JAPAN¬ 
ESE SHRUBS HARDY IN 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN 
Their profusion of either urn- 
or bell-shaped flowers ranging 
from white through salmon to 
red, their slender, ascending 
branches and the small leaves 
which take on glorious autumn 
tints render the Enkianthus 
family wonderfully attractive. 
Enkianthus japonicus is shown 
above and at right E. campanu- 
latus, the latter having been 
brought into European cultiva¬ 
tion by the English collector, 
Charles Maries, (see page 105) 
needs of the people. Over the greater part of Japan the soil is 
excessively poor and incapable of producing vegetables, root- 
crops, or cereals. The forests of J apan are the country’s greatest 
indigenous wealth and to them and her rugged land-surface 
Japan owes her natural beauty. Truly Japan is from the scenic 
view-point an extraordinarily pretty country and in this con¬ 
nection is only rivalled by New Zealand. 
rhe climate of Japan is very similar to that of the Atlantic 
seaboard of this country. It is strongly influenced by a warm 
ocean current which flows along its shores to as far north as 
the latitude of Tokyo, the capital of the Empire. South of 
Tokyo broad-leaf evergreen trees chiefly, Oaks and Laurels, with 
Pines and other conifers are the dominant trees of the forest. 
North of Tokyo deciduous-leaf trees—Oaks, Maple, Birch, 
Beech, Alder, with Pine, L.arch, Fir and Spruce—are the prevail¬ 
ing forest elements; the autumnal tints of the deciduous trees 
are a striking feature everywhere in Japan. 
The flora of Japan is, of course, closely related to that of 
China, though there are very few species common to both lands. 
There is also a marked affinity with that of eastern North Amer¬ 
ica. The absence of lime in Japan is most favorable to the de¬ 
velopment of the Rhododendron and Vaccinium family and 
this is numerically, both in genera and individuals, the richest 
group of plants found there. This family of Ericaceae, as it is 
technically called, boasts no lofty trees and no herbs. It is 
essentially a family of shrubs which carpet the ground, form 
low thickets or grow from 5 to 12 ft. tall and as much in dia¬ 
meter. A few in Japan are small trees and elsewhere in the 
world are found trees of moderate size. T his group possesses 
many attributes which are pleasing to the garden-lover. The 
flowers of nearly all are pretty or handsome and produced in 
very great quantities; the foliage of all is good and many, very 
many, are evergreens with lustrous leaves; quite a host of them 
are ground-covers of great beauty. If Vaccinium be included, 
edible fruits of pleasant flavor are another feature, but it is to 
