OF JAPAN. ILLUSTRATED BY UPWARDS OF TWO HUNDRED WOODCUTS. BY ANDREW MURRAY, F.L.S., ASSISTANT-SECRETARY TO THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. REPRINTED (WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS) FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY (1862). LONDON PRINTED BY BRADBURY & EVANS, WHITEFRIARS. 11.9.67dgd PREFACE. THE two English botanists who, by their explorations in Japan, have recently added so much to our knowledge of the vegetable products of that country, namely, Mr. Fortune and Mr. John G. Veitch, having both kindly placed their stores of specimens and information at my disposal for the use of the Royal Horticultural Society, I have availed myself of them to give a connected. account of the different species of Pines and Firs found in that country; the Conifers being the family in which, along with many Fellows of the Society, I take the greatest interest. The original works on the flora of Japan, in which information regarding this family is to be found are limited to three, Kaempfer's "Amonitatem Exoticarum," Thunberg's "Flora Japonica," and Siebold and Zuccarini's "Flora Japonica." The two former are works published respectively in 1712 and 1784, which although very good for the science of those days, are not of much use in the present-and the latter is a costly modern illustrated work of great beauty, of which the portion relating to Conifers was published in 1842. Any other works, in which the Conifers of Japan have been described, are either mere compilations, containing extracts acknowledged. or unacknowledged from Siebold and Zuccarini, without plates or figures, or consist of isolated notices of particular species in various periodicals. The work of Siebold and Zuccarini continues, therefore, if not the sole, at least the chief, authority on this subject; |