TWO LADIES IN FULL DRESS.  The way the ladies here are dressed is strikingly elaborate and picturesque.  The elder is attired in a style peculiar to court ladies in the days of yore, wearing Uchikake-or an elaborately embroidered mantle which trails behind.  The younger one is in her pretty robe of silk, with its long flowing sleeves and the richly embroidered sash (obi) tied behind in a very carefully formed butterfly bow.  The train of the ladies' Kimono is of a considerable length, stiffened with wadding.  The Hakoseko, or pocket book, carried by the ladies in the folds of their dress, contains a mirror, combs and other toilet material.		THE CHERRY.  Cherries are cultivated in Japan not for fruits but for flowers.  Along with the chrysanthemum the cherry is the national flower of the Mikado's Empire.  It has delicate pink colored petals, and the distant view of full blossoming cherry trees along the bank of the Sumida baffles all attempt at description.  The cherry is the most favorite subject for Japanese painters, by whose brush the charms of this flower are often vividy represented.
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