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The Garden Magazine, October, 1923 
pendula ) is a more familiar plant in gardens. The handsomest 
of all is the Sargent Cherry with flowers i| inches across, 
pale to rose-pink in color, but unfortunately rather fleeting in 
character. This Cherry (P. serrulaia var. sachalinensis) is a 
large tree in the forests of northern Japan and is the parent of 
some of the best double-flowered forms. The other chief par¬ 
ent of the garden Cherries of Japan is the fragrant-flowered 
P. Lannesiana var. albida, native of the volcanic region near 
Yokohama. The species so abundantly planted in and around 
Tokyo is P. yedoensis named for the capital city but of unknown 
origin. Given plenty of room, this is a fine avenue tree which 
grows quickly and has a broad rounded crown. There are 
other equally worthy sorts, but the gardens of the West have 
scarcely understood the requirements of the Japanese Cherries 
and in consequence they are much less seen among us than their 
beauty warrants. 
Among the many prized Japanese flowering trees and shrubs 
introduced into Western gardens must be counted such Crab- 
apples as Mains Halliana, M. floribimda, M. micromalus, M. Sar- 
gentii, M. Sieboldii with its varieties arborescens and calocarpa, and 
M. iumi. All are beautiful, perfectly hardy in the cold climateof 
New England, produce an abundance of blossoms each spring 
and in autumn a crop of small attractive fruits much sought 
after by birds during the winter. Easily managed, floriferous 
in the extreme, these Crabapples possess every attribute neces¬ 
sary in hardy flowering plants and need no praise here. The 
first three, though long ago introduced, have not yet been found 
in a wild state and their origin has yet to be solved. They are 
old favorites in Japanese gardens, may possibly have been 
brought from China, perhaps chance hybrids and their wild 
parents may have disappeared. We cannot answer the ques¬ 
tion of their origin, but we can be thankful that such beautiful 
hardy trees have come to our gardens. 
Among the other valuable plants that gardens owe to Japan 
may be mentioned the Japanese Quince ( Chaenomeles japonica ); 
the Witch-hazel ( Hamamelis japonica and its var. arborea ); the 
parent stocks of our garden Weigelas; very many Maples with 
colored and curiously incised leaves; the well-known Hydran¬ 
geas, H. paniculata, H. hortensis, and the wonderful climbing 
H. petiolaris; and that most indispensable shrub and hedge- 
plant Berberis Thunbergii. The only substitute for Ivy hardy 
in the gardens of New England, Evonymus radicans and its 
variety vegetus, are Japanese and so, too, are Lonicera japonica 
and Vitis Coignetiae with its noble, massive foliage brilliantly 
colored in the fall. 
Of herbs we have the Japanese Iris of many colors, and 
among Lilies the wondrous Lilium auratum and the even more 
useful L. speciosum, both with many forms; also the charming 
L. japonicum and L. rubellum, to mention no others. From the 
dependency, the Liukiu Islands, came that most indispensable 
species L. longiflorum. 
Many magnificent conifers form forests in Japan, and several 
are established in our gardens. The noble Abies bomolepis and 
the Colorado Fir {A. concolor) are the best Firs for the gardens 
of New England. The two Chamaecyparis (C. obtusa and C. 
pisifera) are most useful to us, and some of their forms ex¬ 
ceptionally so. One of the finest ground-covers we possess 
is the Japanese ( Juniperus chinensis var. Sargentii.) For New 
England the Japanese Yew ( Taxus cuspidata ) is the finest ex¬ 
otic evergreen tree and the most valuable gift Japan has made 
to the gardens of the colder parts of North America. 
Early Benefactors Who Bridged the Pacific with Plants 
HP HE story of plant introduction from Japan is simple com- 
* pared with that of other lands dealt with. It has, however, par¬ 
ticular interest to the American people inasmuch as Japan was the 
first non-European country from which America received plants di¬ 
rect. The real opening of Japan to foreign intercourse was due to the 
vigorous action of the United States Government through Commodore 
Perry which resulted in a treaty being signed in 1854. 
In 1861, the first Japanese plants reached this country. They were 
sent by Dr. George R. Hall through Gordon Dexter and handed over 
on arrival to Francis Parkman, the historian, living at Jamaica Plain, 
Mass. Among them were Lilium auratum, the Golden-rayed Lily of 
Japan, a Wistaria with double flowers ( IVistaria floribimda f. violaceo- 
plena), the Parkman Crabapple ( Malus Halliana f. Parkmanii), two 
forms of Lilium speciosum, many variegated plants, Hall’s Amarvllis 
(Lycoris squamigera), Chamaecyparis pisifera, Rhododendron brachy- 
carpum and other valuable plants. 
In 1862, Dr. Hall brought home a much larger consignment which 
he handed over to the nurserymen, Parsons & Co., Flushing, 
Long Island. This second consignment contained such indispensable 
plants as Hydrangea paniculata f. grandiflora; the Magnolias (A/, kobus 
and M. stellata); Hall’s Honeysuckle ( Lonicera japonica var. Halliana); 
the fine evergreen Evonymus patens; four Wistarias, including the white 
and long-racemed varieties; many varieties of Japanese Maples and 
Weigelas; the Keaki ( Zelkova serrata), the most valuable hard-wood 
timber tree in Japan; certain Oaks, many forms of Arbor-vitae, Pines, 
and Spruces; the most useful Juniperus procumbens; the remarkable 
Umbrella Pine ( Sciadopitys verticillata ) and that most valuable of ever¬ 
greens for New England gardens, the dwarf form of the Japanese Yew 
(Taxus cuspidata var. nana). These by no means exhaust the list of 
Hall’s introductions, and indeed, up to that date no more valuable con¬ 
signment of hardy woody plants had reached the shores of North 
America. 
George Rogers Hall was born at Bristol, Rhode Island, on March 
1820, and died on Christmas Eve, 1899. After graduating from Har¬ 
vard Medical School in 1846, Hall went to China and commenced the 
practice of medicine in Shanghai. In 1855 he visited Japan and later 
lived there for a period. In Japan he was able to gratify the love for 
plants with which he was early imbued, and his plant introductions 
have made a lasting impression on the gardens of eastern North 
America. 
Another American, William Smith Clark, President of Amherst 
College, Massachusetts, was granted leave of absence from 1876 to 
1878 to establish an agricultural college at Sapporo, in Hokkaido, 
north Japan. On the very year of his arrival there, Clark sent back 
seeds of native trees and shrubs to America, and of these the Arnold 
Arboretum received a share on December 20, 1876. From these 
were raised for the first time in America the Tree-lilac ( Syringa ja¬ 
ponica), the Saghalien Cork-tree ( Phellodendron sachalinen.se), the north¬ 
ern Magnolia (M. kobus var. borealis), the white-leafed Cat-vine 
(Adinidia polygama), and the evergreen Bittersweet ( Evonymus radi¬ 
cans var. vegetus)] also a plant in cultivation but very rare at that time 
-the handsome Adinidia arguta. In 1878 he sent seeds of the rare 
Cercidiphyllum japonicum, interesting as being the largest broad-leaf 
tree in eastern Asia and very beautiful in spring and fall. 
A Portuguese adventurer, Mendez Pinto, discovered Japan in 
1542 and St. Francis Xavier introduced Christianity in 1549. The 
first Dutch ships visited Japan in 1600 and eleven years later a Dutch 
trading factory was established at Hirado followed soon afterward 
by others belonging to the Portuguese, Spaniards, and English. Chris¬ 
tianity made rapid progress in Japan, much to the alarm of the feudal 
lords, military men, and Buddhist priests, and much persecution en¬ 
sued. In 1624 Christianity was proscribed and Japan closed to 
foreigners, except the Dutch and Chinese, and remained so until 
America forced open the door by the treaty of 1854. 
It is to the Dutch that the world owes its first knowledge of Japanese 
botany, and it was they who introduced the first plants into Europe. 
The Camphor-tree ( Cinnamomum Campbora) was probably the first, 
for Jakob Breyne in his “Prodromus” 1.4, published in 1678, records a 
fine specimen growing in van Beveringk’s garden; in 1680 A;alea in- 
dica and in 1689 the Tea-plant and six varieties of Chrysanthemum 
were growing in the same garden. 
The Dutch East India Company employed people of many nation¬ 
alities in their East Indian possessions and trading ports, especially 
medical men. Such was Andreas Cleyer, a German, born at Cassel, 
who passed some years in Dutch employ in Java and also visited 
China and Japan, returning to Europe about 1680. Cleyer was the 
first European to study Japanese plants and is commemorated by the 
genus Cleyera. Much more important was the work of another 
German, Engelbert Kaempfer, for many years in Dutch service at 
Batavia in Java. From Batavia he went to Japan with the embassy 
which the Dutch Company sent annually to that country. He resided 
at Nagasaki from the autumn of 1690 to that of 1692 and during that 
interval visited Tokyo. In his work entitled Amoenitates Exoticae 
published in 1712, Kaempfer gives an admirable account of Japanese 
plants with many good figures under their vernacular names and 
among them one of an Azalea which now bears his name. 
