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into the country are antimony and salamoniac, quick-silver and borax and sublimate of mercury.
Chapter ninth of this Book is devoted to the trees and plants of Japan. Amongst these are specified the mulberry-tree, the kadsi, or paper-tree, the urusi, or varnish-tree, the bay, the kus or camphire-tree, the tea-shrub, the sansio, the fig-tree, the wild-fig, the chestnut, the pear, the walnut, the pistach, the oak, naatsime, citron, orange, lemon, vine, bramble, raspberry, strawberry, plum, cherry, fir, cypress, bamboo, maki-tree, iron-tree, tsubacki-shrub, satsuki, sakanandsio, maple, fasi-tree, feverfews, various lilies, the hemp-plant, the cotton-plant, the wild hemp plant, plants affording oil, the turnip and others. In naming the above plants I have followed the order observed by Kaempfer. (p. p. 112–122.)
The two following chapters give a list of the Beasts, Birds, Reptiles and Insects, as well as of the Fishes and Shells of the country:—
Amongst the animals the author does not fail to introduce certain chimerical quadrupeds, with the delineation of which those who have lived in Japan are probably familiar. Of these is the Kirin, a creature of incredible speed, having two soft horns before its breast and bent backwards, having the body of a horse, the claws of a deer and the head similar to that of a dragon. The animal in question is so considerate that it takes care never to trample on any plant and never to injure any insect or worm. Its conception requires a particular constellation in the heavens, and on earth the birth of a Sefin or man of an incomparable understanding and remarkable love for mankind. A representation of the Kirin is giver amongst the plates at the end of Vol. I.
Other chimerical animals are the dragon and the water-dragon: These are likewise represented in the plates. The next chimerical creature of which mention is made is the Foo or Bird of Paradise, nearly akin to the phœnix of our classical legends. This bird, of which there is likewise a representation, dwells high in air and only visits the earth on the birth of a Sefin or of a great Emperor.
