Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1881 — Japan’s National Flower. [ARTICLE]

Japan’s National Flower.

The cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan, as the rose is of England, the lily of France, the thistle of Scotland, and the shamrock of Ireland. On the Mikado’s flags, pages and carriages, and on the soldiers’ caps and uniforms, you will see the open chrysanthemum. But the flower of the people and the nation is the flower of the blossoming cherry tree. The Japanese cultivate all over Japan the sakura tree, which is valued only for the beauty of its blossoms. From an entire ti’ee you could not get ripe cherries enough to make a pie; but the blossoms are massed together on the boughs like clouds, and the blooms are often as large as a rose. Picnics in Japan axe called “going to see

the flowers. ” In June millions of people go out to sing and sport and laugh and play under the cherry trees, or to catch “ the snow showers that do not fall from the skies.” Some of the people become so enchanted with the lovely blossoms as to even worship the famous old trees. The Philadelphia Easy Hour mentions Mr. J. A. Walton, of 1245 North Twelfth street, that city, as an enthusiastic indorser of St. Jacobs Oil for the relief and cure of diseases of horses.