200 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. 
lessons. One reason which makes Japan such a rich field for 
observation is that perhaps in no other country will you find 
so many types of vegetation within so small an area. The 
sombre gloom of the Cryptomerias, the stiff and stately Firs, 
Pine-trees twisted and gnarled into every conceivable shape, 
flowering trees and shrubs in countless varieties, combined 
with the feathering grace of the Bamboo, and all arranged as 
if the function of each plant were not only itself to look its 
very best, but also to enhance and set off the beauty of its 
neighbours—present a series of pictures difficult to realise. 
Fancy a great glen all besnowed with the tender bloom of 
Cherries and Peaches and Magnolias in spring, or blazing with 
the flames of the Maples to warm the chill October, and in its 
depths a great waterfall leaping from rock to rock for some 
hundreds of feet! Here and there the soft brown thatch of 
some peasant’s cottage, or the quaint eaves of a Buddhist 
temple, jut out from the hillside, while far down below you 
are the emerald green patches of paddyfield, with great white 
cranes stalking about in solemn state. In such a glen you 
may sit hour after hour, feasting your eyes in wonder, and 
learning how to get the fullest value out of your treasures at 
home. Few if any of the plants which you are admiring 
are too tender to be grown in England, and the fair 
landscape before you furnishes the key to their successful 
adaptation. 
The Japanese are true lovers of scenery ; no people have 
a keener feeling for a beautiful landscape; to them a moon 
rising over mount Fuji is a poem, and their pilgrimages to see 
the almonds in blossom or the glories of the autumn tints 
are almost proverbial—and yet, strange to say, in their gardens 
