WINTER MEETING. 175 



ety of coloring on the same tree or plant that sur}>rise8 all new-comers 

 to that country and is a source of constant delight to the beholder, 



Japan has a wonderful and beautiful flora. The vivid green of the 

 trees, the large number of evergreens, and many of their trees are 

 (like all of the Hawaiian Island trees) evergreen, while the earliness 

 and loDg continuance of the bloom is a constant wonder to an Amiri- 

 can. Fruit trees begin blooming in Japan in January and February, 

 and each particular tree or bush continues so long in bloom and has 

 such a succession of flowers as to be wonderful. Ice often forms on 

 the east coast to the thickness of an inch in the latter part of winter, 

 and the snow may fall and lie on the ground for days together, and yet 

 the blossoms of fruit and other trees seem to endure it without serious 

 injury. One of the mysteries of the Orient is that the flowers have 

 little or no perfume, and the fruits, as a rule, are deficient in flavor. 

 Their apples and pears come under the rule and are nearly worthless 

 to those who are used, as we are, to the best that grow on the earth. 

 Their oranges do not come under the rule, and are a decided exception, 

 for they are very fine, especially those little, flat varieties that are grown 

 so plentifully about the inland sea in the southern part of the country. 

 They are generally seedless and the rind parts readily from the fruit, 

 and it is easy to break the orange up into sections without any juice 

 breaking oat, and yet these oranges are among the juiciest and very 

 best grown anywhere. Pears in Japan are grown on trellis, but of the 

 overhead kind, and about eight or nine feet high. They use cherry trees 

 for park trees, and it may be said in passing that the Japanese are among 

 the best horticulturists of the world, and the painstaking care 

 that they give to their trees and plants merits the great success 

 they secure. The Japanese are passionately fond of trees and flowers, 

 and very few families fail to have them, even although not on the 

 ground,, for some of them live in upper stories of houses, and yet with 

 roofs, windows and shelves, they manage to have fruits and flowers, 

 and the many dwarfs that they have in both fruits and flowers enables 

 them to have a variety beyond anything that would be possible in this 

 country. It is not uncommon to see there a tree in full fruitage that 

 is in a four-inch flower pot and less than two feet high and not having 

 a spread of more than one foot. Of course, not much fruit can be 

 grown from such diminutive specimens, but the pleasure of growing 

 them is out of all proportion to the size of the trees or the bulk of 

 the crop. I^Tot a branch or leaf that is unnecessary to the health and 

 vigor of the tree is allowed to grow, and, without scientific education, 

 these Japs are good horticulturists. In other words, they are inten- 

 sive rather than extensive workers and the results of their labors are 



