Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. II NO. 2 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN. MASS. MAY 9. 1916 
Japanese Cherries. The publication by the Arboretum of an illus- 
trated book on Japanese Cherries by E, H. Wilson greatly increases 
our knowledge of these plants and will lead, it is believed, to their 
more general cultivation in this country. Mr. Wilson has recently 
passed a year in Japan where he was sent by the Arboretum to solve 
many problems which have long perplexed students of the Japanese 
flora, and especially to study the character and distribution of the 
Japanese Cherry-trees and the origin and peculiarities of the numerous 
forms which are cultivated by the Japanese and which have made 
Japanese gardens famous. Mr. Wilson succeeded in seeing the ten 
Japanese species in their native forests and all the principal col- 
lections of the garden forms. The introduction into the Arboretum 
of plants of all the species and of seventy different named garden 
varieties is one of the results of this journey. Mr. Wilson states in his 
introduction that, although American and European gardeners have 
been importing Japanese flowering Cherries for half a century, scarcely 
one good-sized healthy tree can be found in this country or in Europe. 
These varieties are double-flowered or otherwise abnormal and there- 
fore can only be propagated by grafting, and a choice of the right 
stock on which to graft them is important. The plants imported from 
Japan are all grafted on the variety Mazakura of Prunus Lannesiana 
which is a poor short-lived tree particularly subject to the attacks of 
scale and boring insects. It is used as stock by the Japanese because 
it can be quickly and cheaply raised from cuttings. In Europe and the 
United States one of the European Cherries has been used as stock 
for the Japanese varieties and on this they have succeeded no better 
6 
