XL THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 



A 5 we stated previously, the chrysanthemum, in Jap- 

 anese calendars, generally belongs to the ninth month 

 (o. c.), or October. This is probably due to the fact that 

 the fifth great festival, the Kiku no Sekku (Festival of the 

 Chrysanthemum) fell on the ninth day of the ninth month 

 (o. c.), or toward the end of October. But we took the 

 liberty to change that order, simply because the Emperor's 

 birthday comes on November 3, and the sixteen-petalled 

 chrysanthemum has been for a long time the imperial 

 emblem. Moreover, the annual Chrysanthemum Garden 

 Party, given at one of the imperial palaces, falls in No- 

 vember. The difficulty in harmonizing the two calendars 

 (old and new) arises from the fact that the ninth month 

 of the old calendar covers portions of both October and 

 November. 



The chrysanthemum blossoms are of various shapes, 

 sizes, and colors ; but, according to Mr. Conder, "the yellow 

 kind ranks first." It is, in fact, said that there are almost 

 300 different shades of color in about 800 varieties of chry- 

 santhemum raised in Japan. One can find, moreover, "gi- 

 gantic flowers, microscopic flowers, plants of single [huge] 

 blossom, and single plants of 200 [600 to 700] blossoms." 1 

 In November, 1902, in the Imperial Gardens, Tokyo, there 

 was one plant with 1272 blossoms, each 2^2 inches in diam- 

 eter ! And one of the great curiosities of the chrysanthe- 



1 Miss Scidtnore's Jinrikisha Days in Japan. 



