Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University

At the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, this guide follows a nearly three-century-old hinoki cypress bonsai from a Japanese temple courtyard to the collection of Larz Anderson, an American diplomat who fell for these trees while serving in Japan in 1912. It traces the ocean crossing he personally oversaw, the gift from Japan's Imperial Household, and the family who eventually donated the tree to Harvard. You'll hear how few of Anderson's original trees survived alongside it, through depression and war. Stand close and look for the wire-shaped branches only decades of careful shaping can make.