LITTLE GARDENS 



figure is chipped, cover the chipped place with 

 another touch of the color. 



I think I have not mentioned Japanese Ian- 

 terns as garden possibilities. They are alien 

 enough, to be sure, yet they are quaint and deco- 

 rative, and more modest than the importations 

 from Italian palaces and convents with which so 

 many owners of palaces try to foreignize the 

 landscape of New York and Massachusetts. I 

 am not speaking of those paper lanterns, gay and 

 pretty ornaments, familiar to lawn-parties — 

 luminous flowers of the night — but of the stone 

 and metal inventions that are used in and about 

 the temples of Japan. They stand on pedestals, 

 somewhat hke binnacles on shipboard, they have 

 overhanging roofs like pagodas, and they may 

 contain lamps or candles. Their little windows, 

 softly shining through leaves, suggest the com- 

 forting lights of home. These devisements are 

 works of art, and while there is a similarity in 

 their construction, each is an individual conceit; 

 that it is which makes them art. Much gilded, 

 trifling, insincere ornament is made for garden 

 use, but it behooves us to be content with simple 

 things and let our walks through little kingdoms 

 248 



