II RIVERSIDE LETTERS 11 



Showaku ribetsu. - - Self-abnegation and 

 restraint." 1 



The following on the question of cutting 

 flowers is interesting ; you may remember 

 that in one of my former letters, I said that 

 in some cases it seemed to me a kindness to 

 flowers to gather them, namely when the 

 weather was vile out of doors. I was there- 

 fore pleased to read 



" The same Buddhist doctrine which for- 

 bade the wanton sacrifice of animal life is said 

 to have suggested the gathering of flowers 

 liable to rapid destruction in a tropical 

 climate, and prolonging their life by careful 

 preservation." 



The whole of Mr. Conder's paper is of 

 great interest, and he gives a number of 

 pages of diagrams and line plans of Japanese 

 flower arrangement ; from which the extreme 

 importance that the Japanese attach to line is 

 very evident. Beauty of line appears to have 



1 Trans, of the Asiatic Soc. of Japan. Vol. XVII., Part II. 



