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near houses and temples, which often have clean stems due to pruning. Mayr, however, records a forest tree, 123 feet in height, with a stem 33 inches in diameter, and clean of branches to 57 feet. Dupont,’ who gives many interesting particulars concerning this species, states that it ascends in Kiushiu to 3000 feet on northern slopes, and in Honshu to 4ooo feet on southern slopes; and that it requires for its best development a deep, permeable, and rich soil, such as is found on alluvial tracts. It thrives well also on volcanic soils and sandy loams, but does not succeed on poor sands or on stiff clays. Dupont states that on suitable soils and situations it grows remarkably straight, whether isolated or crowded in the forest, attaining on soil of middling quality at 1600 feet elevation in the latitude of Fuji-yama, 5 feet in girth at 60 years old, 9 feet at 120 years, and 124 feet at 180 years. The growth of isolated trees on alluvial soil is still more rapid, the annual rings averaging 4 inch in width. He advocates the planting of this tree on account of its rapid growth and the value of its timber, which he considers to be superior to that of oak. (A.H.)

It seems strange that this tree, whose wood is more highly valued by the Japanese than any other hard wood, should be planted on so small a scale in Japan. Probably it requires too many years to come to maturity to induce private persons to plant it when bamboo, Cryptomeria, and pine offer so quick and certain a return. But though I saw no plantations of Keaki,? I believe the Government are making efforts to preserve and increase the area under this species. It is said to be found wild in the south up to about 5000 feet, and in the north up to about 2000 feet. It also grows wild in Hokkaido, but not to so great a size as in the north-eastern districts of the main island which are famous for their large trees. I heard of, but was not able to see, one said to be the largest in Japan at Sendai. Rein® speaks of one which was felled at Meguro, near Tokio, in 1874, and measured 11.7 metres in girth at one metre high.

The largest I measured myself was growing by the side of the Nakasendo road, at a place called Hideshiwa, near the village of Sooga in Shinano, in a grove of trees just below the road, and may have been wild or planted. It was about 115 feet high and 20 feet in girth, dividing at about 20 feet, into two tall upright limbs, each 10 feet or more in girth, and seemed to contain about 800 to 1000 cubic feet of timber. Close to it was a very large Æsculus, and on the other side of the road another Keaki, 113 feet high, by 13 feet 6 inches in girth, clean and straight to about 70 feet high.

Such trees as these are found only where they have been crowded when young, the tendency of the species being to assume a branching and spreading habit, so that most of these which are seen planted singly are thick and spreading rather than tall.

In the forest the Keaki grows scattered among other trees, and is said by the author of the handbook on Japanese forestry to love calcareous soils. I never saw any such soil in Japan, but it seemed to grow equally well on all kinds of soil provided it is deep and moist. As to the age to which the tree attains I cannot speak positively, but it looks like a very long-lived tree. Its bark is smooth and greyish in colour, somewhat like that of the beech. It seeds freely and reproduces itself

1 Essences Forest. du Japon, 45 (1879).

2 The Japanese name of this species is Keyaki, occasionally spelled Keak.

3 Industries of Japan, 225 (1889).