Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/498

 490

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. VIL JUNE 21, 1913.

characters say " Hello ! " This pronun- ciation is now often to be heard in Lincoln- shire also, where formerly " Hollo ! " or " Hullo ! " was always used. The comic American anecdotes, so widely read in England, appear to have familiarized people with the transatlantic variety of the inter- jection. H. O.

DOUBLE FLOWERS IN JAPAN.

(11 S. vii. 188.)

IN 'The Encyclopaedia Britannica,' llth ed., vol. v. art. ' Camellia,' we read :

" Most of the numerous cultivated forms are horticultural products of C. japonica, a native of China and Japan, which was introduced into Europe by Lord Petre in 1739. The wild plant has red flowers, recalling those of the wild rose, but most of the cultivated forms are double. In the variety anenionaeflora nearly all the stamens have become transformed into small petaloid structures which give the flower the appearance of a double anemone."

To some hasty readers this passage might sound as if affirming all double strains of Camellia japonica to be the issues of its European cultivation after 1739. But the truth stands quite otherwise. Li Shi- Chin's ' System of Materia Medica,' 1578, testifies to the then existence of certain double forms in China. The ' Annals of Japan,' 720, torn, xxix., records that in the year 684 a provincial presented to the Court a white-bloomed C. japonica, which proves the Japanese to have paid so early an attention to this plant's varia- tions. Since 1615, its competitive shows became in great vogue, culminating in a catalogue published in 1694, giving al- together more than two hundred, mostly double, forms (Kitamura, ' Kiyu Shoran,' 1830, torn. xii.). This number, however, seems now to have dwindled into but one hundred and odd (Miyoshi, ' Lectures on Botany,' Tokio, 1906, vol. ii. p. 725). Dr. Miyoshi (ut supra, pp. 716-32) designates as th3 Japanese flowers most wonderfully prolific of garden forms the native cherry (sakura, or Prunus pseudo-cerasus), the so-called plum (P. Mume), the Camellia japonica, the chrysanthemum, the tree peony, the azaleas (several natural varieties of Rhododendron indicum, R. ledifolium, &c.),the morning-glory (Pharbitis hederacea), and the Iris Kaempferi, each of these having given rise to a large or small num- ber of double races. Moreover, Japan

produces many native and introduced flowering plants with double or semi- double horticultural forms. Merely for exemplification's sake, I give below a ran- dom list of them compiled from a few books and living specimens at hand :

Sagitta sagitti folia ; Narcissus Tazetta. var. chinensis ; N. jonquilla ; Hemero- callis flava ; Portulaca grandiftora ; Dian- thus caryophyllus ; D. barbatus ; D. chinen- sis ; Matthiola incana ; Papaver Rhoeas ; P. somniferum- ; Nelumbo nucifera ; Nu- phar japonicum ; Pceonia albiftora ; Cle- matis florida ; C. patens ; Adonis ramosa ; Ranunculus japonicus ; Pirus spectabilis ; Prunus japonica ; P. persica ; Spircea prunifolia ; Kerria japonica ; Rosa rugosa , R. indica ; R. microphylla ; R. Icevigata ; R. Banksice ; Rubus rosifolius, var. coro- narius ; Impatiens balsamina ; Althaea rosea ; Hibiscus syriacus ; H. mutabilis ; Camellia Sasanqua ; C. reticulata ; Punica granatum ; Jasminum Sambac ; Petunia violacea ; Nerium odorum ; Serissa fcetida ; Gardenia florida ; Primula cortusoides ; Platycodon grandiftorus ; Helianthus annuus ; Dahlia variabilis ; Senecio campestris ; Inula britannica ; Calendula arvensis ; Callistephus chinensis ; Bellis perennis.

To elucidate the old aphorism, " The Creator makes nothing very perfect," the observant. Chinese sages have frequently adduced double blossoms never ripening into any good fruits (Kaibara, ' Materia Medica of Japan,' 1708, Introduction) ; and proverbially well known in Japan is a poem of Prince Kaneakira (d. 987) com- miserating the total absence of fruits from the double races of Kerria japonica. These moralizations set apart, I cannot recall even a single instance of the Japanese or Chinese ever having disliked to grow double flowers. Since early days, however, there has been a good deal of difference of Japanese opinion as to whether single or double flowers are aesthetically superior. As a matter of course, this debate would never meet With any satisfactory decision,

Sua cuique quum sit animi cogitatio Colorque proprius,

and because all those opinions, so varied and mutually opposed in details as they are, agree in acknowledging the essential truth that all attractive flowers, both single and double, have each its own points of beauty, able to make its full display only if felicitously associated with corre- sponding environments, circumstances, occasions, attendants, visitors, and what