Old Book on Japan & its Morning Glories (among other books)

Looks like some free, downloadable ebooks, some of which relate to English/Japanese language, but especially! - The Wonderful Morning Glories of Japan, by Eliza Ruhama Scidmore -

http://www.japanorama.com/eb_japan.html

have fun & don't wait too long to download anything that looks interesting

Karen

Karen - What a great website book to download! Loved the meanings of the names! Thanks for posting that link!! You need to add that to the sticky thread too! Definitely worth downloading and printing out too!

This is great, thanks, Karen!!

Joseph

glad you liked them - would never have found them if they were what I was looking for - will add to the sticky's "library" shortly

Thank you Karen!!!

I downloaded 7 ebooks, hope to find some time to browse through them


Martin

Martin, there is something about the wishful phrase "hope to find some time..." that brings out the pest in me - following are some results of searching Gutenberg for the word "Ipomoea" -

(sorry, link's not stable; see below)

And then, one could search Gutenberg for Asagao, which is intriguing for the results in Dutch & Portugese, neither of which I can read; however, they had a special relationship with Japan. About the time of the beginning of the Edo period, in the early 1600s, the Portugese established a trading colony at Nagasaki which was managed by the Dutch. Dutch landscape oil paintings and european/western medical texts were introduced to the upper Japanese aristocracy...I wonder if the intellectual flow from Japanese to Dutch included anything botanical or horticultural...among other things?

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Try clicking on the Gutenberg website - http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Scroll down to Advanced Search in the left column & click on that -

Then, in the bottom box, where it says Full Text (leave the other boxes alone), type Ipomoea and then click on Search. Then do it again for Asagao. Etc.

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I can only guess what searching these results might or might not bring. According to a Smithsonian magazine article a ways back, I seem to recall that the Chinese had ships in the 7th century AD that far exceeded European ships of the 15th century, technologically, and were trading up and down the western coast of Africa. Makes one wonder about any botanical trading going on (such as the African Ipomoea nil) and how it might tie into any of the results above.

This message was edited Jul 7, 2008 6:18 AM

I know this was a kind of superficial statement, Karen. What I really meant to say is one needs to often download staff for later reference...because they may take it off the web again.

I have often experienced this with glossaries I would have need later on and I wished I had downloaded at some stage or other...

I have two files where I store interesting materials, these files are called to read later1 and read later2, but they are getting bigger all the time...


Martin

PS. I did read the asagao ebook, amazing to think that we are just dabbling in the MGs as lay people and not the real connoisseurs without ever having seen the seldom types...

Martin, "superficial" you ain't - you help keep this forum moving and your sense of adventure is much appreciated. But, I confess I couldn't resist the opportunity to tease you with regard to constraints of time. Seems like we'd have to live centuries in order to investigate and study every book, wonder, mystery, etc. on the web.

Evidently many of the "seldom types" were destroyed in WWII, and some were rescued from oblivion thanks to those who were growing them in private gardens. So, hooray for this forum's efforts to perpetuate lovely and/or unusual MGs and long may we propagate and share them with all who express interest or innocently wander into this forum not knowing the addiction that awaits them, thanks to the forum's enablers.

Hey, Karen. I was inspired by the ebook to use some flowers and bring them in every morning to float them in a Chinese peanut bowl before the sun scorches them...

This way I can enjoy them inside the house, too.

Since I had a crash on my computer, I regret not having saved the free morning glory article, but I am not gonna pay for it now...It's always the same they lure you with something for free and then a little later if you need something you have to pay for it. What a shame!


Martin

Hey Martin, I can email it to you?

Martin, thanks for posting this. If anyone else wants a copy of this book emailed to them, let Joseph or me know.

Heck - I have a file of 9 ebooks relating to MGs and/or Japan that were free to download. How about anyone interested just contact each other on this thread so we can all swap whatever ebooks relating to Japan that we've collected?

I love old art that has come out of Japan, so some of these might be more culturally related and not necessarily directly relate to Ipomoea..although there might be an indirect reference to MGs - love when that happens. Doncha wish Mark Twain had written something like A Yankee in Osaka? (or sumpin like that)

I can not do this now, but a blog page where these books are copied out would be nice. And then the sticky could link to that. One problem is that I've noticed lately that Gutenberg does not want their free ebooks used for money, and DG does charge a subscription fee. Another reason for some place - even if not a MG society yet - but some place that could be a repository for books relating to MGs and related subjects, as well as a seed repository. It could be complementary to DG.

Alrighty - everyone swap your books and links that relate to MGs and/or Japan so that, in the meantime, we can cultivate a resource pool among ourselves, just as we're cultivating a *seed pool* among ourselves. Between us, Becky and I have given or traded seeds to over 100 people in this forum and/or DG at large, and my hope is that others will pay the favor forward - with the seeds named - so that this approximation of a seed bank can stay alive until such time as there may ever be an MG society.

Thanks Karen and Joseph,

I would like to have that PDF file on Morning Glories that used to be free on japanorama.com, Joseph.

I'd be grateful if you could email it to me.

Thanks.


Martin

Karen or Joseph, can one of you send it to me also?
A.

I can email the document if you d-mail your email address to me. I can't do that until tomorrow night however.

Thanks to Martin about reviving this thread...I had frankly forgotten about the file after I had downloaded it.

Joseph


This message was edited May 5, 2009 11:19 AM

Thank you Joseph.

Martin and A., I could email you this book in the next 15 minutes or this evening, if you would send me your emails (I know you did already, but this time I'll put them in a better place).

I had downloaded some of the other books related to Japan on that webpage, if anyone wants them, too, let me know.

Joseph, don't you have some related books you could share?

Clicking on Evr's homepage and checking out her threads to this forum might also lead to some great books on MGs.

Any language is fine - Either Altavista's translator works for me, or sometimes pictures are useful/appreciated by themselves.

Anyone else?

Karen, would love to have the e-book. Sent you a dmail.

Karen or Joseph, can we print it out if we wanted to? Thank you both for offering.
A.

Antoinette,

All you need is Adobe Acrobat Reader to read and print it. I think it is probably ok to print it out for your own use.

Karen,

I haven't any other e-books I downloaded for free about JMGs. I am having fun slowly trying to translate one I bought from the Japanese Amazon.com affiliate but decline to distribute it since it was not offered as a freebie initially.

Joseph

Joseph, I understand - good luck with it.

I sent the book to Elsa and am in the process of sending it to Patootie. Martin and A., could you dmail me your emails again purtyplease? I'll be around a little longer today, and then could do it later this evening.

Oh, I sent my email to Joseph.. I'll go send it to you also, whomever can send it will be great for me. Thank you Karen.
A.

sent the book to Gourd -

Martin, I had downloaded a few other books from that site last year - if you want them, dmail me and I'll send you a list of their titles so you can see if you want them, along with Skidmore's book.