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Reporting from: https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/cornell-trees/about/forest-flora-of-japan

Forest Flora of Japan

Sargent, Charles Sprague. Forest Flora of Japan: Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1894.

Forest Flora of Japan (1894) was one of the first comprehensive views of the woody plants of Japan, and was based on Sargent's trip to the country in 1892. Sargent and his nephew Philip Codman traveled in July to Hokkaido and northern Honshu to collect seeds and herbarium specimens. Continuing in the tradition of his mentor and friend Asa Gray, Sargent both accounted for the woody flora of Japan and compared them with those native to North America, essentially updating Gray's Forest Geography and Archeology (1878). Sargent was not only one of the first Americans to realized that the climatic and floristic similarities between eastern Asia and eastern North America would allow for the successful cultivation of numerous Asian species in North America, but also that many of the species found in Japan that had been believed to be native to the country were actually "long ago" imports from China and Korea.

Sargent was struck both by the sheer variety of tree species he found, and the very high proportion of tree species as compared to other flora. Sargent and Codman returned to Boston that December with approximately 200 seed collections, and 1,225 herbarium specimens. These included the Anise magnolia (Magnolia salicifolia) and the torch azalea (Rhododendron kaempferi), and perhaps most notably, the early-flowering hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata ‘Praecox’) and what was later named the Sargent crabapple (Malus sargentii).

During this trip Sargent and Codman also met, and traveled with, the Englishman James Herbert Veitch, owner of Veitch Nurseries, who was exploring for new plants himself. During this time Sargent and Veitch also shared their interest in exploring the Chinese flora as well, and later Veitch would commission Ernest Henry Wilson to travel to China, but only after first sending him to Boston to consult with Sargent. In his later introduction to Wilson's A Naturalist in Western China (1913) Sargent compared the ligneous flora of North America with that of China, emphasizing both the similarities and differences as well as the richness of the Chinese flora.

Sources:

The Arnold Arboretum- Expeditions Unveiled

Eastern Asian - Eastern North American Phytogeographical Relationships - A History From The Time of Linnaeus To The Twentieth Century D. E. Boufford and S. A. Spongberg

Sargent's Studies of the Forests of Japan Charles E. Bessey, Sargent's Studies of the Forests of Japan, The American Naturalist, Vol. 29, No. 348 (Dec., 1895), pp. 1049-1056

Charles Sprague Sargent (1841-1927)

Charles Sargent was a highly influential American botanist, collector, and author. A graduate in Biology from Harvard in the class of 1862, Sargent served in the Union Army before touring Europe and then returning to manage Holm Lea, his father’s 130-acre estate and gardens in Brookline, Massachusetts. Under his direction flower beds and geometric arrangements were put aside in favor of naturalistic trees, shrubbery and meandering paths. In 1872 he was appointed Director of the Harvard Botanic Garden, and when in 1873 Harvard established the Arnold Arboretum he was appointed as its Director, a post he was to occupy for 54 years. He also became professor of arboriculture at Harvard in 1879.

Sargent was a prolific author, including the monumental works The Silva of North America and The Manual of the Trees of North America. The standard botanical author abbreviation Sarg. is applied to the many plants he identified. His influence was also felt nationally on the conservation of American forests, and he was the chairman of the National Forest Commission from 1896–97. As part of the Commission he advised on the creation of 21 million acres of national forest reserves. Additionally Sargent campaigned with John Muir against the flooding of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, and traveled with Muir on several excursions, including to Alaska, the western forest reserves, the Southern United States, and about half of Muir’s 1903-1904 world tour.

At an Arbor Day ceremony in 1927, Massachusetts Governor Alvan Fuller planted a white spruce in Sargent’s memory, stating:

“Professor Sargent knew more about trees than any other living person. It would be hard to find anyone who did more to protect trees from the vandalism of those who do not appreciate the contribution that they make to the beauty and wealth of our nation.”

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