The Flowers of Japan 
By E. H. Wilson,* Massachusetts 
OXE may safely assert that no garden large or 
small in the United States of America is with- 
out its something "japonica." True, not all 
the plants bearing that name are strictly native of 
Japan, for the ignorance of botanists and others has re- 
sulted in many plant names being misnomers, but that is 
another story. To the horticulturists of this country 
Japan is of peculiar interest, for not only has it furnished 
our gardens and our greenhouses with a host of invalu- 
able plants, but it is the only country of which the first 
fruits horticulturally speaking came direct to the United 
States of America. The gardens of this country secured 
the plants of most lands through Europe and not only 
exotic plants but a great number of North American 
native plants also. With Japanese plants the case is dif- 
ferent thanks to the enthusiasm of Dr. G. R. Hall. It is 
well that garden-lovers of this country should treasure 
the name of this gentleman, for the plants he introduced 
— Lonicera Halleana, Magnolia Stellata, Malus Halliana 
and others — are indispensables. It was in March, 1862, 
that Dr. Hall returned from Japan and handed over his 
rich collection to Samuel Parsons at Flushing, Long 
Island, for propagation and distribution. But previous 
to this Francis Parkman, of Jamaica Plain, Boston, had 
received a consignment of plants from Dr. Hall, through 
Mr. Gordon Dexter, and among others was the famous 
Lilium Auratum, which flowered for the first time in 
America in July, 1862. In the early sixties Thomas 
Hogg visited Japan in the interest of Samuel Parsons 
and introduced in 1865 many plants including Magnolia 
obovata. 
Another American, Professor W. S. Clark, who went 
from Amherst College, and developed the Agricultural 
College at Saporo in Hokkaido in the early seventies of 
the last century, sent in 1876, seeds of many valuable 
plants such as Magnolia Kobus, Cercidiphyllum japoni- 
cum, Syringa japonica. Actinidia polygama, etc., etc. In 
the Arnold Arboretum and elsewhere many fine speci- 
mens raised from his seeds are growing today. 
A few Japanese plants — Rosa rugosa for example — 
reached Europe toward the end of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, but it was not until after Commodore Perry's ex- 
pedition in 1852-54. and the signing of the treaty on 
March 31, 1854, which resulted in the opening of Japan 
to foreign commerce, that the plants of that land began 
to find their way freely to the Occident. 
Three Englishmen, John Gould Yeitch from early 
spring to autumn of 1860, Robert Fortune from the 
autumn of 1860 to the summer of 1861, Charles Maries 
from 1877 to 1880, collected extensively in Japan, and 
each added to gardens treasures beyond price. During 
the same period, and in the early eighties, various for- 
eign amateurs in Japan sent to their friends in Europe 
such valuable plants as Vitis Coignitiae, Primus Sargentii, 
Rosa multiflora, R. Wichuraiana and Rose "Crimson 
Rambler." 
The pioneer work was supplemented in a re- 
markable manner by Professor Charles S. Sargent, 
director of Arnold Aboretum, who visited Japan in 
1892. His predecessors in Japan had enjoyed a virgin 
field, but as an offset to this Sargent had the advantage 
which full knowledge of a subject gives. He knew not 
*From his lecture before Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Boston, 
Mass. 
only the Japanese plants already in cultivation in the 
Occident, but was also fully acquainted with the whole 
forest flora of Japan, and the result was that a great 
number of beautiful and hardy trees and shrubbs were 
added to our gardens. He introduced, among other 
plants, all the Japanese deciduous oaks, certain horn- 
beams, birches, alders, Picea Glehnili, Abies sachalinen- 
sis, Malus zumi, M. Tschonoskii. M. Sargentii, Kalo- 
panax ricinifolium, Enkianathus campanulatus, Acer ni- 
koense, A. Miyabei, Rhododendron Kaempferi, one of 
the most beautiful of all shrubs hardy in New England, 
and many other valuable plants. In fact, this journey 
was the most fruitful in results of any undertaken iii 
Japan. 
The flora of Japan is very rich in ornamental trees 
and shrubs and the majority of the deciduous plants and 
nearly alt the conifers have proved perfectly hardy and 
amenable to cultivation in the gardens of New England. 
In Japan the pine, the bamboo and the plum-blossom 
(prunus murae) are emblematic of long life, strength 
and happiness and a love of flowers is a dominant char- 
acteristic of the people. This love is spontaneous and 
fundamental and is one of the virtues of the race which 
appeals forcibly to the most casual visitor. The arrange- 
ment of flowers for house decoration is one of the three 
essential parts of every lady's education and be it said it 
is an accomplishment in which the whole people excel in 
a manner most artistic. 
Here and there throughout the land are places famous 
for their plum trees, cherry trees, wistaria, iris, peonies, 
azaleas, maples, chrysanthemums, pines, cryptomerias 
and so forth, and in season people flock from far and 
near to feast on their beauty. 
With a few exceptions, it is on trees and shrubs that 
the Japanese lavish their attentions. The iris, chrysan- 
themum, lotus lily, Rhodes japonica, liriope spicata and 
the morning glory are the only herbs that they are really 
fond of. The morning glory ( Ipomoea rubro-cserulea), 
an exotic of American origin, is extraordinarily popular 
and boasts societies whose object is the development of 
this particular flower. The blosoms open at sun-up and 
devotees will arise before dawn and walk long distances 
to gardens where this plant is grown to watch the flowers 
expand. 
The floral seasons of Japan commence with the Ume 
(plum-blossom, Prunus mume) in January, and close with 
the chrysanthemum in November and December. In 
March and in April, according to climate, the cherry 
trees blosom and this is the season par excellence. The 
Japanese recognize a hundred and more varieties of cher- 
ries with white, yellow, pure pink to deep rose blossoms. 
Some small shrubs, others large trees, with wide-spread- 
ing crowns ; some have pendent, others quite erect 
branches, and all are wondrously beautiful. Cherry trees 
are wild in the woods and thickets throughout the length 
and breadth of Japan, and are everywhere planted in vast 
numbers — in temple and castle grounds, in park and gar- 
den, in the streets of the cities and alongside the high- 
ways, and by pond and river side. 
I never knew the full glory of the wistaria until I 
saw it in Japan. There it is not only wild in profusion, 
but is abundantly planted by the sides of the ponds, 
ditches and streams and it is trained over arbors and 
{Continued on page 34.) 
