For August, 1922 



227 



How a whole nation is raised to ecstasy is iuul.>trntecl 

 by the case of Japan. When the Spring Cherry, Pnuiiis 

 subhirtcUa blooms there in its characteristically weeping- 

 form variety, pciidula, a folk festival is observed. Pniinis 

 ycdociisis or paraccrasiis. which is lacking in scarcely any 

 park or temple garden, and at the height of whose bloom- 

 ing the Mikado ordains a holiday, rivals it for the people's 

 favor. In time of flowering there follows upon this tlie 

 numerous wild and cultivated forms of P. scrrulata and 

 of P. Lanncsiaiia, both of which often pass aiuong us 

 incorrectly under the name P. psciidoccrasiis. To be sure 

 I was not able to observe the Japanese ornamental cherries 

 in my native home, but I learned thoroughly to know them 

 and to prize them during the four Spring seasons I passed 

 in the Arnold Arboretum at Boston. Here since 1890 the 

 wild forms of P. serrulata. the variety sachalinensis, better 

 known as P. Sargentii (Sargent's Cherry), has been suc- 

 cessfully naturalized and every year its magnificent pink 

 blossoms expand, along with the bronze-colored young 

 foliage, to the delight of thousands who stream into the 

 Arboretum at cherry blossom time. The following garden 

 forms of P. serrulata, which belong to the variety sachali- 

 nensis, are quite wonderful : alba rosea ( Shiro-fugen) pink 

 buds, open flowers with two carpels, shaped like leaves, in 

 the center: Fugenzo (James Veitch or Vcitchiana of the 

 gardens) like the preceding but rose-white blossoms; 

 Hisakura Kirin. very large, compactly double, pink, late 

 blooming ; Seckiyama, bright pink, large, double and, 

 according to E. H. Wilson, who has studied these forms 

 in detail, perhaps the most lovely double ornamental 

 cherry. To P. Lainicsiana belong, according to ^Ir. 

 Wilson, the following magnificent forms: Sumizone. 

 single, white with pink-blush, fragrant, very large : 

 Fukwokuju, first light pink, then white, double: Hata- 

 zakura, white with pink, serai-double, somewhat like an 

 apple; Jonior, pure white, rather loose, strongly fragrant ; 

 Oyon, semi-double light pink; Ojochin, semi-double, light 

 pink, very large. Not without mention should remain 

 P. Sieboldii, which in the gardens passes as P. pscudo- 

 cerasiis var. Sieboldii or var. Il'ateri, as well as under its 

 natal name, Naden. The blossoms are pink, quite double 



(■r s-jmi-(loul>le, the last being the case with the kind called 

 Vohiki. With this, of course, the number nf Japanese 

 ornamental cherries is not exhausted. Their history is 

 highly interesting and is treated in a discourse written in 

 Cerman by M. Miyoshi, which appeared in 1916 in a 

 Japanese scientific journal at the same time that Mr. 

 Wilson published his work on Japanese cherries in the 

 Arnold Arboretum. According to Miyoshi the kind 

 Fugenzo has been known in cultivation for more than four 

 hmidred years while a work of the year 1681 already takes 



Japanese zivefing clicn-ii:s. pink, single, Shidare-Higan-Zakura, 

 a)<d C. subliirtella pcnduta 



account of forty sorts, of which twenty-one have been 

 kept till the present time. 



The group of peaches and apricots at this time I can 

 only briefly touch upon. Among apricots should be 

 noticed as a lovely Spring bloomer, P. sibirica, the 

 Siberian form of Armeniaca, whose precocious splendor, 

 to be sure, only too often is severly damaged by late 

 frost. The same is true in the case of the Alanchurian 

 form, P. Mandsluirica. In the Vienna Botanical Garden 

 there stood until about a decade ago a lovely tree of the 

 Siberian apricot, which, according to my observation 

 through a number of years, used to bloom very nicely 

 in March. I sent some seed of it to the Arnold 

 .\rboretum and was able in 1916 and 1917 to see plants. 



GUI-TOI 



Tears of the Draaon 



Graeefal, but slow growing, Mains Halliana vr Parkmanii. 



