The Garden Magazine, October, 1923 
105 
The first “Flora” of Japan was the work of C. P. Thunberg, pub¬ 
lished in 1784, and still of great value to students. Thunberg was a 
Swede, born in 1743, and a pupil of the great Linnaeus whom he after¬ 
ward succeeded at the university of Upsala. In 1771 he obtained an 
appointment as surgeon on one of the Dutch East India Company’s 
ships. He landed at the Cape of Good Hope where he spent two 
winters investigating the natural history. From the Cape he went 
to Java where he remained five years except for a voyage to Japan. 
Thunberg traveled overland from Nagasaki to Tokyo, tarrying there 
for two months during which he devoted himself assiduously to the 
collecting and study of plants. He died in 1828. 
Greatest of all the employees of the old Dutch East India Company 
from our viewpoint was Philipp Franz von Siebold, a Bavarian, born 
in 1796, who resided in Japan from 1823 to 1829. To Siebold we owe 
the magnificent “Flora Japonica,” and he introduced into Europe 
quite a number of plants from Japanese gardens including Lilium 
elegans and L. speciosum, and twenty years later several others in¬ 
cluding two Crabapples ( M. floribunda and M. Sicboldii) and several 
flowering Cherries. In 1830 he returned to Europe, quitted the Dutch 
service and employed himself in arranging the rich store of scientific 
material he had collected in Japan. About 1850 he established a 
nursery and “Jardin d’Acclimatation ” at Leiden, for the cultivation 
and distribution of new plants from the Orient. He revisited Japan 
for a few months in 1856 and made arrangements whereby a large 
number of plants previously unknown in European gardens were suc¬ 
cessfully introduced and disseminated by his nursery. Siebold died 
at Munich in October, 1866. As a physician he won a high reputation 
among the Japanese and in consequence enjoyed greater freedom in 
the land than his predecessors. For his contributions to our gardens his 
name will always be held in esteem wherever Japanese plants are grown. 
Our Debt to Nurserymen of Constructive Vision 
N URSERYMEN have quite naturally played a prominent part in 
the work of plant introduction, and from 1840 until the end of the 
first decade of the 20th century a leading place was taken by the famous 
English house of James Veitch & Sons. Their collectors have gone to 
all parts of the world and much that is best of our present-day garden 
material has been introduced into commerce bv this firm. The name 
of Veitch is indelibly associated with the plants of many lands, but 
perhaps with none more than those of the Orient. 
In i860, John Gould Veitch, a member of the firm, visited Japan and 
was among the first to ascend Mt. Fuji. He sent to England seeds, 
Lily bulbs, and living plants of many choice species and varieties in¬ 
cluding many forms of Japanese Maple {Acer palmatum) , several forms 
of Chamaecyparis obtusa and C. pisifera, the Japanese Umbrella Pine 
(Sciadopitys veriicillata), Abies finna, Tsuga diversifolia, Picea polita, 
P. je{oensis, Pinus densiflora, P. Thunbergii, Cryptomeria japonica 
var. elegans, Primula japonica, P. cortusoides, Lilium auratum and that 
most popular of all Vines, Veitch’s Ampelopsis or Boston Ivy {Par- 
tbenocissus fricuspidata). 
On another occasion I shall have more to say of the work of this re¬ 
markable man who died in August, 1870, at the early age of thirty-one. 
His son, the late James Herbert Veitch, visited Japan in 1892 and 
among other plants introduced the lovely pink-flowered Azalea known 
as Rhododendron Schlippenbachii. 
In 1877 Messrs. Veitch despatched Charles Maries to the Orient 
in quest of new plant material. The expedition lasted three years 
and was quite successful. Maries visited China, Formosa, and Japan. 
From China he sent home the now well-known Primula obconica, the 
best of the Witch-hazels {Hamamelis mollis ), the related Loropetalum 
chinense, and a fine Lily ( L. speciosum var. gloriosoides). From Formosa 
he sent the red-flowered Rhododendron Oldhamii and Lilium phiUppin- 
ense var. formosanum. It was, however, in Japan that Maries made 
his chief successes, traversing the length and breadth of the land and 
shipping home many valuable plants. Apart from many plants found 
in Japanese nurseries and gardens, Maries introduced Abies Veitchii, 
A. Mariesii, A. sachalinensis, Styrax obassia, Trochodendron aralioides. 
Viburnum tomentosum var. Mariesii, Daphniphyllum glaucescens, Pla- 
tycodon grandiflorum var. Mariesii, Enkianthus campanulatus, Rod¬ 
ger sia podophylla, the hardiest of the Bananas {Musa basjoo), the won¬ 
derful Lilium auratum var. platyphyllum, numerous Ferns including 
Davallia Mariesii, and other useful plants. Maries was born in Strat¬ 
ford-on-Avon and educated at the Grammar School, Hampton Lacy. 
After his engagement with Messrs. Veitch terminated, he settled in 
India in 1882 and died there as Superintendent of the Gwalior State 
Gardens on October 11, 1902. 
Of other illustrious men who have labored in Japan to enrich 
our knowledge and gardens and have passed into the great beyond 
one more must be mentioned, Carl Maximowicz, a Russian. To Maxi- 
mowicz we owe the first intimate account of the forest flora of Japan 
and of much of Eastern Asia; he also introduced a number of living 
plants into the Botanic Gardens at Petrograd. He was born at Tula 
in the interior of Russia in 1827 and died in February, 1891. In 1853 
he first visited northeastern Asia and from 1859 to 1864 he traveled 
to Japan, Manchuria and adjacent regions. The rest of his life was 
spent in the study of the flora of these regions and that of China and 
Mongolia. Maximowicz was a great scholar and all his writings are 
remarkable for their clearness and precision and are a lasting monu¬ 
ment to his eminent attainments. 
TAKE CARE OF YOUR STRAWBERRIES AND RASPBERRIES NOW 
K EEPING this year’s setting of Strawberry plants free from 
weeds, and maintaining the soil in good condition right 
up to freezing weather in the fall will insure a good yield and 
quality of fruit in 1924, so say the experts at Cornell. It may 
be necessary, further, to do more or less hand hoeing in ad¬ 
dition to horse cultivation to maintain the vigor of the new- 
forming plants. 
When the ground is frozen sufficiently to prevent the wheels 
of a wagon from cutting through, the Strawberry bed may be 
mulched. This will not only reduce, if not entirely prevent, 
winter injury from severe cold, but it will help prevent loss 
from heaving of the plants during the freezing and thawing 
weather in the early spring. More injury from heaving takes 
place on the heavier types of soil than on the lighter sandy 
or gravelly loams; however, mulching is advisable wherever 
it is possible to obtain coarse manure or straw for this pur¬ 
pose. 
W HEN the Red Raspberries, the Purple, and the Black 
have been harvested, it is well to go through the planting 
and cut out the canes that have just fruited, and burn them. If 
allowed to remain, they tend to spread disease to the new shoots. 
They will cut much more readily at this time than late in the fall, 
or in the spring when they have become dried out and hard. 
