76 THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
Marcu, 1916 
fruit trees none, when taxed 
with the question, will at- 
tempt to deny their effective 
beauty. It is with the near 
relatives—the brothers, sis- 
ters and first-cousins—of 
these familiar fruit trees 
that I am about to treat 
here and since the fruits- 
they produce have no 
comestible value we can 
drink in their charms un- 
influenced by the pernicious 
alloy of utilitarianism. But 
do not misunderstand me: 
I am not denying the indis- 
pensable value of our fruit 
trees as such nor their ex- 
tensive and extended cul- 
ture. Quite the contrary. 
But the creed of the true 
horticulturist is founded on 
that old Biblical truth— 
“man can not live by bread 
alone.” 
Any attempt to portray in 
words that marvelous floral spectacle 
known in Japan as the Cherry festival 
fails lamentably. It must be seen to be 
properly appreciated, but no language 
can exaggerate the beauty of the Jap- 
anese Cherries. Readers of THE GARDEN 
MAGAZINE who have visited Japan and 
have basked in the loveliness of the 
Cherry blossoms must have yearned 
deeply to possess some of the trees. 
Such feeling is natural. We should 
have these Japanese Cherries in our 
gardens and there is no valid reason 
why here in eastern North America we 
should not have our own Cherry fes- 
tival, for the trees are perfectly hardy 
and thrive here. In the Arnold Arbo- 
retum the few large examples we have 
produce a wealth of flowers each and 
every season. 
I. A Hundred Different Cherries 
F FLOWERING Cherries the Jap- - 
anese recognize a hundred or more 
varieties with white, yellow, pure pink to 
rose-colored blossoms. Some are small 
In their season the Japanese Cherries are unsurpassed 
for wealth of bloom. Mostly pink and white 
Malus floribunda has small, rose-pink 
flowers in greatest profusion 
with wine-colored fruits. 
Shrubs, others large trees with wide- 
Spreading crowns; some have pendent 
and others quite erect branches. All 
are entrancingly beautiful. Cherry 
trees grow wild in the woods and thick- 
ets throughout the length and breadth 
of Japan and they are everywhere 
planted in vast numbers—in temple and 
castle grounds, in park and garden, in 
the streets of the cities and alongside 
the highways, by pond and byriver-side. 
At Koganei, a village some ten miles 
from Tokyo, there is a three-mile ave- 
nue of Cherry trees planted in 1735, by 
command of the Shogun Yoshimune. 
Many of the trees are from sixty to 
seventy-five feet tall, with trunks from 
ten to twelve feet in girth and crowns 
from fifty to sixty feet through, and 
when in full flower the scene presented 
is a never-to-be-forgotten one. 
As one result of its recent expedition 
to Japan the Arnold Arboretum has now 
growing a collection of more than sev- 
enty varieties of these Cherries and in a 
few years the American public will have 
an opportunity of appreciating the at- 
tractive charms of these plants. Mean- 
while the following kinds of proven 
merit should be grown by all who love a 
hardy plant. 
The first of these Cherries to open its blos- 
soms is Prunus subhirtella, the Higan-sakura 
or Spring Cherry of the Japanese. This is a 
low bushy tree, rarely more than eighteen to 
twenty feet tall, with thin ascending-spreading 
branches and a dense mass of twiggy branch- 
lets, the whole forming a flattened or flattened- 
oval crown twenty to thirty feet through. The 
flowers are silvery-pink and are roduced in 
such profusion as to hide completely the twigs 
and branches. This Cherry was introduced to 
, cultivation by the Arnold Arboretum in 1894, 
and has been widely distributed. 
The Weeping Cherry (P. pendula) has flow- 
ers similar to the foregoing to which it is very 
closely related, but it is a much larger tree, 
growing sixty to seventy feet tall with a trunk 
ten to twelve feet in girth, and massive spread- 
ing limbs dividing into branches which curve 
downward and into slender whip-like pendent 
shoots. It was introduced to 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, 
magnificent examples are common and there is 
no more graceful or beautiful tree than this 
Malus Sargentii, a dwarf growing Crab 
Flowers white 
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 blos- 
soming is made the occasion for 
a national holiday is the Yoshino- 
sakura (P. yedoensis). This is a 
large, quick-growing tree which 
at its best is forty-five to fifty 
feet tall with a trunk from six to 
eight feet in girth and massive 
spreading branches forming a 
rounded crown from sixty to 
seventy-five feet through. The 
fragrant flowers are larger than 
those of the preceding two Cher- 
ries, and vary in color from pure 
pink to white. If crowded to- 
gether the trees grow taller but 
the crowns are narrow and much 
less shapely. It was introduced 
to the Arnold Arboretum in 1902, 
from Tokyo, and the seedlings 
have grown very rapidly. 
The most beautiful of all the 
wild species of Asiatic Cherries 
is P. Sargentwi. This is a native 
of the northern and colder parts of Japan 
and has large, pink to rose colored flowers 
and the young unfolding leaves are a ruddy- 
brown. It is a large and long lived tree and 
the avenue at Koganei mentioned previously is 
of this species and its varieties. Dr. Bigelow 
sent seeds from Japan to the Arnold Arbo- 
retum in 1889, and trees raised from these: 
seeds are now twenty-five feet tall with a trunk 
four feet in girth and a crown twenty feet 
through. Nearly all the Japanese Cherries 
with double rose colored flowers are forms of 
this P. Sargentii, and it is the stock on which 
all of that class should be grafted or budded in 
order to make them long lived trees in this 
climate. 
One of the loveliest of these rose colored 
Cherries with double flowers is known in west- 
ern nurseries as “James H. Veitch.” The Jap- 
anese name for it is Fugenzo and there is also 
a white counterpart which is styled Shiro- 
fugen. These two are distinguished from all 
others of this class in having two tiny green 
and folded leaves in the centre of the majority 
of their flowers as is the case in the double- 
flowered form of the European P. Oerasus. 
Two other Japanese Cherries are P. Sie- 
boldit and P. Lannesiana. The first named has 
rose-pink double or semi-double flowers and its 
leaves are clothed with soft hairs. In nur- 
series it is sold as “Watereri” and as “Naden.” 
“James H. Veitch,”’ one of the best Japanese Cherries, 
has double rose-colored flowers 
