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the City in large numbers, and when the nearby seashore offers 
superior attraction for hot weather. The largest attendance was 
in November, which, in 1915, was an unusually beautiful month, 
with a prolonged season of Indian summer. 
Japanese Garden 
New Planting—During the early spring about 170 azaleas and 
other shrubs were planted in the Japanese garden, bulbs of Ger- 
man and of Japanese Iris were placed near the border of the 
lake at several places, and thirty or forty honey-locusts and 
Scotch pines were planted north and west of the garden to serve 
as a screen between it and the large Museum building. A chry- 
santhemum bed, surrounded by peonies, was laid out and planted 
just east of the entrance to the tea-house, and a narrow gravel 
path was also made along the edge of the lake from the tea-house 
to the moon-view house. All of this work was done under the 
personal supervision of the designer of the garden, Mr. T. Shiota. 
One of the chief dangers of a Japanese garden in the hands 
of American gardeners is the temptation to convert it into a flower 
garden. This results partly from a feeling that a blaze of color 
is characteristically Japanese, and partly from a failure to under- 
stand the purpose and essentials of a Japanese Garden. One or 
two rather extensive and costly Japanese gardens in America have 
been practically ruined, from the Japanese point of view, by being 
transformed into flower gardens, following American ideas. 
‘Wisdom dictates that we should keep close to Japanese gardeners 
in our treatment of the Japanese garden from year to year. So far, 
many competent critics of Japanese art have assured us that our 
garden is a close realization of the Japanese ideal, and is, in fact, 
not surpassed in America for the faithfulness with which it 
represents this unique form of art. 
Formal Opening.—On Friday afternoon, May 7, from 4 until 
6, the trustees and their friends enjoyed a preliminary inspection 
of the Japanese garden. A complete Inari shrine outfit was in- 
stalled in the temple for the first time on this occasion. A full 
account of the affair appeared in the Recorp for July, 1915. On 
Saturday, June 5, the Japanese garden and entire botanic garden 
grounds (which had been closed to the public for a little over one 
