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faint shade of pink, becoming pure white when completely opened. Flower 3.54.0 cm in diameter, opening to a rather flat plane. Petals eighteen to twenty-one, with one to five petaloids, ovate, often slightly emarginate at the top, 1819 Ă— 1114 mm. There is one pistil, perfect; 1214 mm long, much longer than the stamens(!). Filament of the stamen extending above the yellow anther. The calyx is broad and vase-shaped, 4 Ă— 5 mm, with a faint purple tinge; there is no distinct transition from pedicel to calyx. Sepals triangular, 6.57.0 Ă— 3.03.5 mm, unserrated, with a faint purple tinge. Flowering season is latesecond to third week of May, flowers appearing with the leaves. (Compare this description with the one of 'Ichihara-tora-no-o'.) 'Ama-no-gawa' 'Ama-no-gawa' ("heaven's river") is the Japanese word for the galaxy, which in Japan is viewed as a river rather than a way as in Milky Way. Ama is an old word for the abode of the gods. According to a myth, the tears of the goddess Amaterasu dropped in the ocean and turned into firm land. This event marked the creation of the Land of the Rising Sun. The cultivar 'Ama-no-gawa' was first recorded in 1886 in a list of cherries planted along the Arakawa River near Tokyo. It is easily recognized by its fastigiate growth and was described in 1916 by Miyoshi as Prunus serrulata f. erecta and by Wilson as P. lannesiana f. erecta. It blossoms profusely with semi-double, light pink flowers set closely to the erect branches; a sweet fragrance, described by some as resembling freesia, surrounds the flowering tree. The fastigiate character extends to the inflorescence, which resemble a group of little flowers standing upright at the side of the branches. The erect flowers are typical for 'Ama-no-gawa' and distinguish it from other, less successful fastigiate forms of flowering cherries. When 'Ama-no-gawa' grows older, its branches tend to sag, the tree loses its typical stifferect shape, and tree identification is a little harder. The column shape might seem rigid to the naturalist, but has proved useful in many garden schemes. Trees in Japan are less floribund and weaker than their European counterparts. 'Ama-no-gawa' is very compatible with Prunus avium stock. Healthy, hardly, easily propagated, and useful for the small private garden, 'Ama-no-gawa', not surprisingly, has become a very popular flowering cherry in the