ABSTRACT
The proper flowers for May are the great peonies, botan, and the azalea and Wistaria. The botan is too delicate to do well in the open ground without a great deal of sheltering from wind and sun and rain, and it is to be seen in perfection only in special gardens. Standing on the hillside among the bushes, where the children play tag and string necklaces of the fallen flowers, it is hard to realize that all this Sturm und Drang of transition. For a Japanese, a cardinal point in the enjoyment of flowers is that they shall be appropriate to the season, and arranged in a natural way. The art of flower arranging is said to have come from India, and to have been originally intended to preserve the flowers used in ritual from the effects of the tropical heat; and that it came to Japan with Buddhism.
