Figure 2. — Roadway in Japan in 1902 lined with flowering cherry trees. 



EARLY INTEREST IN THE JAPANESE 



FLOWERING CHERRY TREES 



IN THE UNITED STATES 



In early 19th century America, the Japanese flowering cherry tree was 

 known only by a few people in this country, and the general public had no 

 opportunities to be aware of its beauty. Possibly, the earliest accounts of 

 the plant being introduced into the United States are listed in the 1846 

 and 1847 catalogues for the Ellwanger and Barry Co., of Rochester, N.Y., 

 and later in the 1852 nursery catalogue of Parsons and Co. of Flushing, 

 Long Island, N.Y. An account also appeared in the March 1862 issue of 

 "The Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Arts and Rural Taste" in which 

 the proprietors of Parsons and Company reported that Dr. George 

 Rogers Hall had brought from Japan "... fifteen new double flowering 

 cherries, one of them described ... to be as large as a rose ..." (4). 



The introduction of a wild species of Japanese cherry into the United 

 States probably did not occur until 1876 when Dr. William S. Clark, first 

 President of the Agricultural College, Sapporo, Japan, sent home seeds of 

 Primus sargentii Rend., native to the mountains of northern Japan and 

 southern Sakhalin (5). In general, however, from the time of the earliest 

 settlers through the colonial, revolutionary, and early pre-Civil War 

 periods, the introduction into America of new species of plants like the 

 flowering cherry trees played a small but vital role in the horticultural 



