Flowering screen of cherry through which peeps Heian Shrine 
in the springtime, the season best suited to make picnics 
or excursions to the countryside, it is natural that the 
cherry flowers should have become one of the foremost 
objects of the nation’s admiration, and also Japan’s 
national flower. 
The site of the Imperial Court and Palaces in olden 
days was invariably within the limits of the Kinai dis- 
trict, i.e. the district embracing Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and 
neighbourhood. It is therefore naturally supposed that 
there was no small number of wild mountain cherries, 
either growing naturally or transplanted from the moun- 
tains. The cherries in those old days were exclusively 
mountain cherries, with single flowers, belonging to the 
same species as those growing in mountains in almost 
12~ 
