The Garden Magazine, October, 1923 
103 
clothe the higher mountain-slopes where also Vacciniums in 
variety luxuriate. In dry woods in the south the well-known 
Pieris or Andromeda japonica is plentiful. There are others, 
but since this is not an article on the Erica family in Japan 1 
will close with reference to Enkianthus, a genus whose merits 
are far from being properly known to garden-lovers. They are 
shrubs from 5 to 20 ft. tall, with many rigid, slender, ascending 
branches, and small leaves which change to glorious tints of 
orange, yellow, and crimson before they fall in the autumn. The 
flowers are borne in clusters or on short racemes in extraordin¬ 
ary profusion; they are either urn- or bell-shape with prominent 
anthers; the color is white to red, often salmon or maybe 
striped with yellow or crimson and are wonderfully attractive. 
Of the several species the tall-growing Enkianthus campanula- 
tus, of which there are many forms, is perhaps the best. The 
Japanese favor the low, round-topped E. perulatus which has 
white urns and is planted in almost every garden in Japan. 
On a dry windswept bank in the Arnold Arboretum all the 
species so far introduced from Japan have proved perfectly 
hardy and either for their flowers in early summer or their 
tinted foliage in the autumn are worth coming a long distance 
to see. 
By the side of rivers and lakes and to a lesser extent on the 
margins of woods throughout the length and breadth of Japan 
grows IVistaria floribunda; this and its Chinese relative are the 
finest hardy climbers our gardens possess. The Japanese are 
properly proud of their Wistaria and it is much planted in temple 
grounds and gardens, usually alongside of ponds. Under cul¬ 
tivation, varieties with white, pink and double violet-purple 
flowers have arisen and have been brought to our gardens. 
So too has the long racemed form (var. macrobotrys, better 
known as IV. multijuga ) which in Japan is vastly superior to 
anything seen in Western lands. In an old garden some miles 
north of Tokyo I measured racemes 645 inches in length! The 
plant was a very old one and bore tens of thousands of such 
racemes. 
The Flowering Crab, the Cherry, the Iris, and Some Lilies 
J APAN holds flower festivals during many months of the 
year, beginning with that of the Plum blossom ( Prunus 
mume ) in February, but the most renowned of course is that 
of the Cherry blossom 
which falls in early 
April and is the oc¬ 
casion for a national 
holiday annually de¬ 
creed by the Emperor. 
In dainty beauty 
the Japanese Cherries 
are among the love¬ 
liest of flowering trees 
—not so much the 
double-flowered ones, 
often exalted in print, 
as the single-flowered 
forms, though both 
have their uses. lean 
think of nothing more 
pleasing than a speci¬ 
men of the Spring 
Cherry ( Prunus sub- 
hirtella ) decked with 
its myriads of win¬ 
some pale-pink blos¬ 
soms. Its variety with 
pendent branches, 
the Rose-bud Cherry 
(P. subhirtella var. 
THE GRACEFUL NONCHALANCE OF JAPANESE WISTARIA 
Distinguished from its Chinese relative by its longer, laxer, and less fragrant flower-clusters, this native 
of Japan (Wistaria floribunda var. macrobotrys, or W. multijuga) is one of the lovliest of hardy climbers 
