CLASSIFICATION 



Many of our favorite garden plants of oriental origin came to us 

 from the gardens of China and Japan and in some instances their wild 

 prototypes have not yet been discovered. Often when the wild plant 

 has been discovered it has been found to differ greatly from that 

 already in cultivation, and in consequence has to be designated as a 

 variety or form of the described garden type. Phylogeny and taxon- 

 omy are often opposed, which is regrettable but unalterable. Stu- 

 dents of the floras of the Orient, particularly those of China and 

 Japan, cannot too strongly bear in mind the fact that a great many 

 of the earliest described species are based on cultivated plants. Let 

 me illustrate this by reference to Japan. The Japanese, like the Chinese 

 and Koreans, are lovers of the odd and curious in flowers and trees for 

 which they have an innate love. Nearly every house, from the poorest 

 hovel to the castle of the feudal lord or his descendants, boasts a few 

 flowers or a garden of some sort. The Japanese love their mountains, 

 many of which are sacred and on most of them shrines have been 

 raised. Pilgrimages to these mountains and shrines are a passion with 

 the people and as mementoes of their visits it is a common practice, 

 and has been for centuries, to bring back some strange or curious 

 plant for their gardens. The result is that Japanese gardens are full 

 of odd and curious plants — dwarf plants, weeping plants, f astigiate 

 plants, plants with variegated and curiously incised foliage, plants with 

 abnormal flowers. This love of flowers has been fostered by Buddhist 

 priests, and this has led to mutual exchange of plants among the 

 peoples of China, Korea, Japan and Liukiu. Now if it be properly 

 realised that it was from such gardens — really museums of oddities — '■ 

 that our early plants were taken and names applied to them the diffi- 

 culty of identifying them with their wild parents will be better under- 

 stood and appreciated. 



Until after 1860 all the Azaleas introduced from the Orient were 

 from gardens, chiefly those of Batavia, Canton and Shanghai. As the 

 plants flowered they were given specific and varietal names, but no 

 attempt to discover their origin was made. Some were placed under 

 the genus Azalea and others under that of Rhododendron. Salisbury 



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