398 



THE ORNAMENTAL CHERRIES OF JAPAN. 



end, while the majority of the guests stand up or are 

 seated at little tables scattered about on the lawn out- 

 side. Ample justice is always done to the viands, and 

 wine, wit and humor flow freely. Here one may hear 

 at once nearly every language of any importance under 

 the sun. The repast being finished, their majesties re- 



Pritntis Psendo-Cerastis [P. piiddiiiii^ PL), Jap., Sakura, 

 Yama-sakitra . It forms a large tree, which is wild in 

 the forests everywhere in northern Japan, and in the 

 mountains of the south. It resembles our cultivated 

 sweet cherry trees in growth and appearance, but differs 

 from them in the flowers and fruit. The former are 



tire to their carnages, and the guests give themselves up 

 to the charms of the flowers for the remainder of the 

 afternoon. 



Having thus seen how the cherry blossoms charm the 

 lives of all classes of Japanese people, let us now give a 

 little closer attention to the flowers themselves. 



The flowering varieties belong to the species known as 



often panicled, 'and the latter is so small 

 and insignificant as to be quite useless. 

 The wood is hard and fine grained, and is 

 often used for carvings and cabinet mak- 

 ing. It has been a favorite ornamental tree 

 with the Japanese from time immemorial, 

 and under culture a great number of flow- 

 ering varieties have originated. These va- 

 rieties are propagated by grafting on seed- 

 lings of the wild stock. Aside from the 

 flowers there is much difference in the growth and gen- 

 eral appearance of these varieties. Some are upright, 

 stiff and straight in habit, while others are spreading, 

 short jointed and crabbed ; and others again have slender 

 willowy shoots, which lend themselves readily to the 

 various forms in which dwarfed and pot-grown speci- 

 mens are often trained. As a rule, the earliest varieties 

 to bloom are single, and the large and very double flow- 

 ers are among the latest to appear and remain the long- 

 est, though there are some notable exceptions to this. 



Flower and leaf start at about the same time, but the 

 leaf grows slowly at first, and the tree does not usually 



