October 15, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



499 



filled with people who live in the few flat-houses in the 

 vicinity and in the upper stories of the warehouses and 

 business buildings. It should be added perhaps that in the 

 perspective the true shape of the park is hardly apparent. 

 It is nearly twice as wide at the side next to the river as it 

 is on the opposite side, and no two of its boundary lines 

 are parallel. 



A Japanese Floral Calendar. 



IF a visitor to the City of Tokio should walk up along the 

 Sumida River he would find upon the bank a noted garden 

 which is known here by the name of Hanayashiki, which 

 means in the Japanese language The Garden. To one who en- 

 ters there to sip a cup of tea a little maid will present a 

 printed list of Mowers classified in the order of the months, and 

 it will be found that the list is adapted to the Chinese calendar 

 as most of our garden plants and our art of gardening were 

 derived from China. The first month of the Chinese, which 

 is the Japanese horticultural and floral January, begins about 

 the middle of February in our modern calendar, and so on 

 during the course of the year, and readers will understand that 

 the first month on the list means February, and that the Feb- 

 ruary of the horticultural calendar means actually March. 

 Here are the seven chosen herbs of January : (1) Seri, CEnan- 

 the stolonifera; (2) Nadzuna, Capsella Bursa-Pasloris ; (3) Ha- 

 kobe, Stellaria media; (4) Suzushiro, Arabis flagellora ; (5) 

 Hotokenoza, Lamium amplexicaule ; (6) Suzuna ; (7) Gogiyo. 



These are the flowers of spring, the seven herbs being 

 the earliest growth after the severe cold and deep frost of the 

 winter. In the garden named above in the spring we can call 

 for the soup of the season, which contains all these herbs. In 

 a well ordered family the good housewife would prepare water 

 with Nadzuna in it, and in this water the members of the family 

 would dip the tips of their fingers before they pared their 

 nails, which have been allowed to grow since December. This 

 custom, however, is becoming obsolete. 



After February, when the days become longer, the most 

 popular flower is Primus Mume (the Mume of the Japanese), 

 which is generally cultivated throughout the empire both for 

 its flowers and its fruit. The beauty and fragrance of its rich 

 varieties are indeed worthy of admiration. It is often kept in 

 a dwarf condition, and under this treatment is suitable for pot- 

 culture on the porches or verandas. With it is found the 

 indispensable and beautiful yellow Adonis Aimcrensis (the 

 Fukujiso of the Japanese). The fruits of this tree make a very 

 useful condiment, and its acid is extensively used for dyeing 

 and other industries. The early Cherry, Prunus subhirtella 

 (Higansakura), with its later varieties, blossoms in March, at 

 which time the whole country is gay with merrymaking and 

 excursions, and people of every class and age go out to enjoy 

 the splendid display which Nature makes. Hundreds of peo- 

 ple now repose on the smooth turf; and the soft sunshine and 

 genial air are excelled in no other holidays of the year. In 

 Japan the fruits of this Cherry are not cared for, but the flow- 

 ers only. 



On the eighty-eighth night after the 1st of January farmers 

 rouse themselves from their winter confinement and leisure 

 and begin to sow seeds in the fields and make beds in the gar- 

 dens for their new plants. The Nashi (Pyrus Ussuriensis) is 

 now in full blossom, followed by the famous Botan (Paonia 

 Moutari), which is well known in foreign lands, and in which 

 we take a pride second only to that which we feel in the Chry- 

 santhemum. Flower shows are held all over the country 

 during this season. Less widely known than the former, and 

 yet a general favorite here, is Shakuyaku [Paonia albiflora), 

 which has been favored by Nature with an air of gaiety beyond 

 that of any of her floral companions. In one of our well 

 known verses it is said : 



" Slender and shy like Shakuyaku when she stands ; 

 Beautiful and dignified like Botan when she sits ; 

 As stately and gentle as Yuri (Lily) in her bearing when she walks; 

 These graces I hope for in her." 



Sendan (Melia Japonica) and Unohana (Deulzia Sieboldiana) 

 are not so attractive as the plants already mentioned, but the 

 latter is used by good women in their celebration of Buddha's 

 birthday on the 8th of April just as the Holly is among 

 Christians. 



At the end of May comes what we call the " Little Summer," 

 really the approach to summer, when the Hanashobu {Iris 

 laevigata) and Nemunohana (Albizzia Jiilibrissin) are in bloom. 

 Then comes Asagao, which means, in the Japanese language, 

 Morning Face, as you say in English, Morning Glory 

 (Ipomoea hederacea), to which special attention is paid by the 



park gardeners of Tokio ; and along the moat around the old 

 castle of Tokio the morning walk is made beautiful by the 

 blooms of Hasu (Nelumbium speciosum). Scirpus maritimus 

 is another famous plant of the season, and in July, when the 

 morning fogs leave dewdrops on the wayside grass, the Les- 

 pedeza bicolor in its varieties, some violet and others white, is 

 abundant everywhere. 



July and August are the most important floral months, and 

 altogether the richest in the calendar in Japanese flowers. 

 Here is a set of seven, which is usually offered on the festival 

 of the Milky Way held on the 7th of July : (1) Senno, Lycnis 

 Senno ; (2) Hayakiku, Early Chrysanthemum ; (3) Kikiyo, 

 Platycodon glandiflorum ; (4) Ominaeshi, Patrinia scabicefolia; 

 (5) Hasu, Neliunbium speciosum,- (6) Oguruma, Inula Britannica; 

 (7) Shimagaya, Phalaris arundinacea. Another collection for 

 August is very useful and popular, in which we find two or 

 three of the plants included in the last set : (1) Karukaya, 

 Anthisderia argucns; (2) Kikiyo, Plalycodon glandiflorum; (3) 

 Ominaeshi, Patrina scabioscefolia; (4) Hagi, Lespedeza bicolor; 

 (5) Shiwon, Aster Tartaricus ; (6), Fujibakama, Eupatorium 

 Chinese; (7) Kudzu, Pueraria Thunbergiana. But there are 

 often arbitrary amateurs who discard Pueraria Thunbergiana, 

 and even Aster Tartaricus, for Ipomoea hederacea. The list 

 we have made is the one popularly followed. The plants are 

 generally grown together, not in regular rows, however, but 

 in apparent confusion, so as to bring out their harmonies and 

 diversities as in their wild state. 



Two weeks ago I went for a trip to the north, and found 

 some of these flowers growing in Nasuno, one hundred miles 

 from Tokio, on the way from Nikko to Shivvobara, in their 

 finest natural forms. 



September is the month of the Chrysanthemum, and exhi- 

 bitions of these are held in various places. One of the largest 

 and finest is in His Imperial Majesty's detached garden at 

 Aoyama, Tokio. But it is impossible to give any idea of the 

 abundance and beauty of our national flower at this season. 



In October comes the early frost, when the leaves begin to 

 change their color and thus invest the mountains beyond the 

 suburbs of the city with new beauty. The trees are chiefly 

 Momidji (Acer palmatum) and its varieties, Urushi (Rhus ver- 

 nicifera) and Ginkgo biloba, with which the Japanese floral 

 year is concluded. 



In the two months which follow Pinus densiflora (Akamatsu), 

 Thalictrum aquilegifoliuiu (Kamakurahiba) and similar ever- 

 greens rule in the gardens of the country whose people can- 

 not do without them at any season. Indeed, this rich and 

 fertile empire is evergreen with foliage, and the happy moun- 

 tains and valleys have a smile for visitors even in the middle 

 of our hard December. 



Of course, what I have written is not meant as a list of the 

 plants available for garden purposes in Japan, but simply a 

 catalogue of those which are kept in Hanayashiki for the pur- 

 pose of indicating the respective seasons. Besides these, we 

 have special exhibitions of Camellias, Wistarias and Azaleas at 

 various places, of which I hope for an opportunity to describe 

 later. 



Agricultural College, Tokio, Japan. H. Yosllida. 



Nematodes in the Chrysanthemum. 



COMPLAINTS of sick Chrysanthemums have been so loud 

 and general this autumn that a microscopic inspection of 

 the trouble has been undertaken. The plants fail to make any 

 adequate growth, the lower leaves turn brown and dry up, and 

 soon the diseased plant is uprooted and replaced by another, 

 which in its turn dies after the same fashion. With the hand 

 lens no signs of insects were to be seen and no form of mil- 

 dew or rust was found. But when the leaves in the first 

 stages of the trouble were torn to pieces with a needle and 

 forceps in water it was found that all the pulpy portion was in- 

 fested with minute worms. They were found of various sizes 

 and ages and in great numbers. Upon examining the dead 

 portions of the plant the remains of these same worms were 

 detected in rdl stages of decay. 



The species is a Nematode which seems to be the same 

 as that which was found on Violets last winter, and also 

 at the present time, as some growers have recently re- 

 ported. In the cultivated Violet the worms are practically 

 confined to the roots, where they produce galls in considera- 

 ble numbers, easily seen with the naked eye. Heteroderma 

 radicicola is charged with preying upon a large list of culti- 

 vated as well as wild plants, but the works upon the sub- 

 ject do not mention the garden Chrysanthemum among the 

 victims. If the Nematode in question is the same as that now 

 well known upon the Violet it suggests that these two plants 



