58 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fragrance of those of the orange. I moved a number of these 

 climbers to my lawn but the plants were young and after three 

 years the foliage had failed to show any white. Living plants in 

 Amherst last season failed to show it ; and I await with interest 

 the determination of the question whether the change in soil, 

 climate and surroundings will cause this species to lose this most 

 valuable peculiarity. The fruit is similar in size and structure to 

 that of the kokuwa, but it is far less abundantly produced and less 

 delicious. 



A word about the mistletoe and I am done with the wild flowers 

 of Yesso. This, as I have already pointed out, is abundant. 

 There are two species, one producing red, the other yellowish 

 berries. Both add greatly to the winter beauty of the forests. 

 It is an interesting question to my mind whether these plants 

 would prove hardy here, but from what I know of the climate of 

 the two places I incline to believe they would. Their introduction 

 could not fail to give satisfaction to the owners of parks or orna- 

 mental forests. 



Of the cultivated flowers of Yesso I need say but little. Much 

 has already been said and written on this subject and better than 

 I could hope to do it. That the Japanese love flowers you are 

 probably all aware. All either collect them from the fields or 

 woods or cultivate them in gardens. Most do both, and select 

 for both with a taste that never fails to charm. Poor indeed is 

 the family — nay more, low down in the social scale — that cannot 

 and does not find at least an old jug for a branch of the pussy- 

 willow, the plum, the cherry, the magnolia, or the brilliant maple — 

 each in its season. And this universal taste and love for flowers 

 is manifested alike in snowy Yesso and in the more sunny south. 

 Yet should one look for the lily, the paeony, the chrysanthemum, 

 the lotus, and the many other flowers for which Japan is famous, 

 each in highest perfection, one must naturally turn to the older 

 parts of the country. These and many other flowers are culti- 

 vated in Yesso, but with perhaps a single exception the new 

 countr}' must yield the palm to the old. That exception is the 

 Iris Kcempferi^ which in Sapporo reaches a wonderful development. 

 Now for several years, every season has witnessed in Sapporo a 

 display of these marvellous flowers, by a local horticulturist, which 

 in Boston would be the wonder of the town. He numbers his 

 varieties by hundreds, and has perhaps an acre of sunken beds 

 separated only b}'^ the narrowest of raised paths. Most of the 



