220 GARDENING WITH BRAINS '^ 



Dragon's Spume, White Cascade, Hoar Frost, 

 Full Moon. Countless poems have been written 

 on them, artists have perpetuated them on 

 vases and paintings, and they are a national cult. 



We are proud of our Burbanks and Eckfords 

 and Bugnots who have done such marvelous 

 things with flowers, enhancing their beauty a 

 hundredfold and creating new varieties undream- 

 ed of before; but Japan had Burbanks by the 

 dozen long before our miracle worker was bom. 

 You can read about them in Eliza Ruhamah 

 Scidmore's article on *'The Wonderful Morning- 

 glories of Japan" in the Century Magazine 

 (December, 1897). 



The asagao was brought to Japan with the 

 Buddhist religion, to become a sort of religious 

 rite in itself. In course of time the native 

 Burbanks expanded it to several times its 

 original size. At the time of Commodore Perry's 

 visit, which opened Japan to the world, princes, 

 priests, nobles, hatamoto, and gardeners were 

 all engaged in a mad rivalry to improve the 

 morning-glory. Plants were sold at fabulous 

 prices, fourteen and even eighteen dollars being 

 paid for a single seed. Then the cult subsided 

 for a while, till twenty years ago, when it became 

 the midsummer craze of both masses and classes, 

 asagao clubs being formed in Tokyo, Osaka, 

 Yokohama, and Kyoto. 



When Burbank made "tomatoes" grow on 

 potato plants and that sort of thing, he followed 



