428 STATE HORTICULTURAL. SOCIETY. 



Several members of local societies followed with glowing accounts of 

 society meetings held under this social plan. 



Evening Session. 



A communication was read from the State Beekeepers' Association con- 

 cerning a joint meeting at Saginaw, also a letter with reference to keeping 

 bees near the highway. 



On motion both were referred to the committee on resolutions. 



Mr. S. Ocomae, of Japan, read a short paper on Japanese gardening, illus- 

 trating with four charts as follows : 



The Japanese garden is made differently from that of America. Some are 

 covered with green grass and others are not ; some are hilly, others flat ; and 

 altogether they have no regular shape as a circle or square, since the garden- 

 ers attempt to make the views as if they were natural landscape, and such 

 ones are regarded as the highest types by skillful gardeners. They use more 

 shrubs and trees than flowering plants, and rocks which have curious shapes 

 and various colors are indispensable to complete the gardens; they are brought 

 from the different parts of the country, and those which are selected to make 

 a rock in the pond are often picked up from the bottom of a river or a sea, so 

 the rocks are more valuable than the trees. 



They make rocky hills about eight feet high (the height is proportional t a 

 the size of a garden) and water is constantly supplied to fall from the top of 

 the hill into the pond, passing through narrow ditches which represent 

 brooks. 



In the pond they generally make small inlands and build a bridge to con- 

 nect them, and numerous gold-fish or carp in different colors as blue, red, 

 white and dark are kept in it, and they are well trained to come up to the sur- 

 face when any one claps his hands, and many birds are tamed to stay there. 

 Sometimes they plant a lotus here and there in the ponds. 



Every garden has at least one or two pine trees. We call them *' Matoo" 

 and which has a figurative meaning "lord of tree," and the people regard the 

 tree as majestic on account of its evergreen. 



There are many kinds of the pine tree, but my illustrations are of the most 

 valuable and striking ones. 



Mr. Ocomae gave the following description of his illustrations which we are- 

 unable to reproduce: 



Fig. 1 is the picture of a pine tree called Shembon-Matoo which means " a 

 trunk and thousand branches." It takes more than twenty years to grow fif- 

 teen feet high while its trunk is not longer than a foot. 



Fig. 2 is called Shidare-Matoo (drooping pine) for its branches grow toward 

 the ground like a weeping-willow. 



Fig. 3 is the rough sketch of the front garden decorated with rocks and 

 shrubberies. This is prevailing at present and it is the mixture of the native 

 style and that of Europe. 



Fig. 4 is to represent the main garden of common style. The tree by the 

 house is a pine tree and the picture itself would give better idea than the 

 description. 



