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worked for a gentleman's hobby and not to satisfy a modern scientific curiosity. Their paintings are usually not very helpful in tracing the identity of historical garden forms. The appreciation of flowering cherries in Japan reached its peak in the first half of the nineteenth century. The enormous popularity these trees enjoyed during this period has never been equaled since. The Nation's Flower Japan had been closed to foreigners since the early seventeenth century. When American ships appeared in Japanese waters in 1853 demanding free access to the ports, the secluded, somewhat romantic world of the Edo period had to face reality. The shogun with his old feudal government could not meet the pending modernization of the country. A young emperor of the old lineage was installed by progressive imperialists as their new leader in 1868, Edo became known as the ''East-Capital," , and the country entered a period of cultural turmoil. For the cherry this meant at first a change for the worse. Many cherry trees and garden cultivars were lost in the upheavals that followed. In time, however, the cherry was again pushed forward as the one and only symbol of the nation. This time it was viewed as an optimistic symbol for a nation that was quickly modernizing after European models. Health care and medicine were modeled after the Germans and motorized transportation was influenced by the English. England had its rose and France its lily, while Japan's flower was the cherry. The cultural confusion of the time was well expressed with the exact opposite emotion. For some the cherry was seen as a symbol of the old feudal society, and thus, in an iconoclast drive, cherries were destroyed and burnt with Buddhist images and temples. Newspapers reported frequently on the cutting down of cherries at places that once were famous and popular for their trees. A majestic weeping cherry at Maruyama in was to be sold at an auction as carpentry wood for woodblock stamps. A physician and intellectual leader named Hakutaka Akashi bought the live tree for five ryo so he could preserve it. Five ryo was the equivalent of 150 kilos of rice, a much more precious commodity than at present, showing not only the value of cherry wood but also the determined affection of men such as this Akashi for cherries. He was a close friend of Anthonius Bauduin (1822