1904.] ADDRESS. 41 



111 Maruyaina rark is a famous cherry called the "night 

 cherry of Gion," because to beliokl its beauty by the light of 

 flaming torches the city literally encamps about its feet. I 

 have been there at seven o'clock in the evening; I have been 

 there at midnight; and the wierd spell held the thousands 

 with an influence no \\'esterner can comprehend. The tree 

 stands on rising ground surrounded by a park. It is old; and 

 its brandies are supported by a score of poles. To us it has 

 no beauty; yet to the people of Kyoto it is dear; and in the 

 springtime even we must gaze in wonder at the mass of white 

 that flows over its bending branches as a veil of glory. Be- 

 neath it the grountl is carpeted with ermine; and in the glow 

 of th(^ evening lights a wild enchantment seems to issue from 

 its ancient form. Far as the eye can reach mats are spread. 

 Men, women anct children, in family groups, in larger parties, 

 sit in social enjoyment through all the evening hours and far 

 toward morning, held by the object to which all faces turn. 

 Here an aged man in silence sits dreaming of other nights 

 beneath the shadow of that tree, and worships a distant past. 

 The dead are here tonight. 



Not to the flowering trees alone do the Japanese give their 

 affection. The country is rich in cone-bearers, of which the 

 Hinoki is most valuable. It rises to great height, with un- 

 branched trunk. Sacred to disciples of Shinto faith, it is 

 planted near the Shinto temples ; and from its timber, straight - 

 grained, light and strong, their shrines are made. More common 

 than the Hinoki is the Sugi or Cryptomeria, universally used, 

 having no rival in the world perhaps, but the Sequoias of Cali- 

 fornia. About the famous temples at Nikko are mighty groves 

 of this tree, forming for me the chief beauty of the place. Along 

 the old imperial highways their lines extend for miles, blending 

 b(»auty and grandeur, and speaking of that past when beneatli 

 their branches trod the retinue of Dymio and Prince. 



Pines are in abundance, but of little value for timber. Some 

 are mighty monarchs famed for historic associations. Upon the 

 shore of Lake Biw^a is a pine over 1,200 years old. The cir- 

 cumference of its trunk is over twenty-flve feet, and its branches 



