40 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904. 



grafted with different colors, until a mature tree is attained 

 ten inches in height, displaying white, pink and red blossoms 

 beautifully mingled. In the place of honor such a tree often 

 adorns the guest room of a wealthy home. In the lyric verse 

 of the people, as in art, the plum figures largely, and is asso- 

 ciated with the nightingale, musical in the season of its blooming. 

 As seen by moonliglit, while the faint perfume floats upon the 

 soft, silvery air, the effect is enchanting. 



" In spring time, on a cloudless night 

 When moonbeams throw their silver pall 

 O'er wooded landscape, shrouding all 

 In one soft cloud of misty white, 

 I'm vain, almost, to hope to trace 

 The plum trees in their lovely bloom 

 Of argent. ' Tis their sweet perfume 

 Alone which leads me to their place." 



Following the plum in the order of the season comes the 

 cherry, in its glory through a few days of April. This, rather 

 than the chrysanthemum, is Japan's national flower. Though 

 it blooms not on the Imperial crest, it blooms in the hearts 

 of the people; and by Emperor and coolie alike is deemed 

 the flower royal. It is planted singly and in groves, in gardens 

 and about temples, along the highway for miles, and upon 

 the banks of streams. Hillsides burst into glory with masses 

 of its bloom against backgrounds of pine. 



The flowering of the cherry is the call for a universal holiday, 

 when the temple gardens are thronged by day and night; 

 and the famous hillsides made alive with festal crowds. Even 

 private grounds, the Japanese gentleman's holy of holies, are 

 thrown open if they possess a noted cherry, for such wealth 

 of divine beauty is not given for one alone, but is a gift of 

 the gods to all mankind. A few miles from Kyoto is a steep 

 hill called Arashiyama. To increase the natural beauty of the 

 place an emperor, hundreds of years ago, planted cherry trees 

 amid its groves of maple and pine. About its floor flows a 

 little river; and there in the springtime come thousands that 

 they may float upon the waters and look up to the blossoms 

 that like clouds rest on the slopes of the mountain. 



