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Chinese influence on later Japanese garden cherries can be supposed because of Naba's mention of 'Mazakura'. This hybrid form has as one of its parents the Chinese P. pseudocerasus. The triploid 'Mazakura' is not a beauty, but it produces aerial roots and is easily propagated from cuttings. Therefore it has always been used as stock for grafting rather than as an ornamental. As a tree from which cuttings were taken, it would have stood in the corner of many nurseries, but it was never for sale and it is not mentioned in the catalogs of the Somei nursery owners. The Chinese genes in 'Mazakura' are found in 'Taizan-fukun', which also has P. pseudo-cerasus as one of its parents. 'Taizan-fukun' is rather easily propagated from rootstock and is more a garden lover's plant than a nursery product. It is not found in the Somei catalogs. The list of Kassho Naba shows a collection of cherries from almost all over Japan as well as with influence from the continent. The collection must be valued as a rich genetic mixture, with the capacity to produce a large and varied number of cherry forms. And indeed, that is what happened in the centuries that followed. Going beyond a simple listing is the systematic treatise by Joan Matsuoka (16691747). His pen name was Igansai, and his book on cherries, dated 1758, is better known as (Igansai's cherries). More than 60 cultivars are described in this illustrated work, which became a standard for later books on the subject. Scientific curiosity speaks from a discussion of the botanic details of a cherry flower. Indeed, Matsuoka was not an amateur, but one of the first professional plant specialists sponsored by the daimyo. Some among these herbalists developed a special interest for cherries, such as this Matsuoka. In time also veritable cherry connoisseurs appeared among the daimyo sponsors. An above-average taste for gardening was found in such daimyo politicians as and Sadanobu Matsudaira, whose gardens were renowned for their botanic collections. The latter, nicknamed the Old Epicurean of Shirakawa, owned a string of country estates and the botanical garden Yokuon-en in the Tsukiji quarter of Edo, which he had planted with many rare specimens. In this collection were numerous cultivars of ornamental plum trees and many "strange trees brought in by ship," which were probably exotic plants from China, Korea, and perhaps Russia or even Holland, the only European country that was allowed to trade with Japan. No fewer than 224 garden forms of flowering cherries are listed in a