1 6 The Japanese Floral Calendar. 



"Claimed for our Sovereign's use, 



Blossoms I've loved so long, 

 Can I in duty fail? 

 But for the nightingale 



Seeking her home of song, 

 How shall I find excuse?" 



This caught the eye of the Emperor, who, touched by 

 the plaintive sentiment expressed, inquired from whose 

 garden the tree was taken, and ordered it to be returned. 



Here are still other plum-poems: 



"How shall I find my ume tree? 

 The moon and the snow are white as she, 

 By the fragrance blown on the evening air, 

 Shalt thou find her there." 



"Gone the old year 

 Gone to his death ; 

 Tears for his tomb. 

 Yet from his bier 

 Stealeth spring's breath 

 Of wafted plum." 6 

 (From Brinkley's Japan, Vol. VI, p. 307.) 



"When the east wind 7 blows, 

 Emit thy perfume, 

 Oh thou plum-blossom ; 

 Forget not the spring, 

 Because thy master is away." 

 (From Aston's Shinto: the Way of the Gods, p. 180). 



'The plum-blossom is the emblem of spring. 



7 The east is in Japan the soft wind our zephyr. 



