Here one way to bookend the nineteenth century that reveals the changing position of the United States in the world: the century began with the 1814 burning of the White House and the ignominious fleeing of the president from the still mosquito-ridden District of Columbia. It ended with the 1912 planting of flowering Japanese cherry trees within a short walk of the White House. The flickering flames of 1814 were a reminder that the new nation was not so isolated as some might have wanted to believe. A century later, the perfume of those cherry trees provided scented evidence of the consumerist fascination with foreign places, products, and peoples.