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12 are subject more or less to sudden changes of weather. It is also said that there is in the air a great lack of ozone (only about one-third as much as in most Western lands); and for this reason Occidentals at least are unable to carry on as vigorous physical and mental labor as in the home lands. Foreign children, however, seem to thrive well in Japan.

"Roughly speaking, the Japanese summer is hot and occasionally wet; September and the first half of October much wetter; the late autumn and early winter cool, comparatively dry, and delightful; February and March disagreeable, with occasional snow and dirty weather, which is all the more keenly felt in Japanese inns devoid of fireplaces; the late spring rainy and windy, with beautiful days interspersed. But different years vary greatly from each other."

In Japan "a rich soil, a genial climate, and a sufficient rainfall produce luxuriant vegetation" of the many varieties of the three zones over which the country stretches. In Formosa, Kyūshiu, Shikoku, and the Ryūkyū Islands, "the general aspect is tropical"; on the main island the general appearance is temperate; while Yezo and the Kurile Islands begin to be quite frigid. The commonest trees are the pine, cedar, maple, oak, lacquer, camphor, camellia,