CHERRIES AND CRAB APPLES 199 



twiggy branchlets, the whole forming a flattened or flat- 

 tened-oval crown from twenty to thirty feet through. 

 The flowers are silvery pink and are produced in such 

 profusion as to hide completely the twigs and 

 branches. This Cherry was introduced to cultiva- 

 tion by the Arnold Arboretum in 1894. 



The Weeping Cherry (P. subhirtella, var. pendula) 

 has flowers similar to the foregoing to which it is 

 very closely related, but it is a much larger tree, growing 

 from sixty to seventy feet tall with a trunk from ten 

 to twelve feet in girth, and massive spreading limbs 

 dividing into branches which curve downward and 

 into slender whip-like pendent shoots. It was intro- 

 duced into cultivation by Philip Franz von Siebold who 

 secured plants for his nursery at Leiden, Holland, 

 from Japan about 1863. It is a long-lived tree but 

 I have never seen a good example in the Occident. 

 In Japan, and especially in the temple grounds, mag- 

 nificent specimens are common and there is no more 

 graceful or beautiful tree than this Weeping Cherry. 

 The Japanese called it Shidare (Hanging) or Ito- 

 zakura (Thread Cherry) on account of its very slender, 

 whip-like pendent branchlets. 



The Cherry so abundantly grown in and around 

 the city of Tokyo and whose season of blossoming is 

 made the occasion of a national holiday is the Yosh- 



