1904.] ADDRESS. 39 



ix'i'iods of licr richest beauty in tree or flower tlie time of festival, 

 when the populace en //ia.s.se issues from village and city to 

 bask hi her bounty. 



Not far from Kyoto is a famous maple scene. It occupies 

 the slopes of a little valley, through which flows a crystal stream. 

 Twic(^ I have visited the place. Ihider a canopy of flame, 6r 

 at a little distance whence could be seen the glow of nature's 

 fire, picnicked hundreds of families, whose children, gay as the 

 falling leaves, romped in the sunshine and shadow. Along the 

 winding wal^s were booths, more numerous than at a New 

 England fair, for the sale of things to eat, to drink, to play 

 with, or to bear away as reminders of the scene. There might 

 be found fried maples leaves, showing the bright colors and 

 flne traceiy, which had been dipped in transparent batter and 

 for a moment dropped in boiling fat. The process went on 

 before our eyes; and the crisp leaves were daintily boxed, 

 that at the household evening meal the beauty of the woodland 

 might be recalled. There were furoshiki also, — cotton kerchiefs 

 painted from the life-blood of the leaves. The cloth was 

 spread smooth upon a block of wood; the leaves were placed 

 upon it in graceful figure and over them was laid another corner 

 of the cloth. With gentle taps the painter hammered the 

 imprisoned beauties until faintly, then in perfect form and 

 color, they sought escape through the fabric. A few severe 

 blows set, as it were, the pattern; and, when the cloth was 

 unfoldetl, nothing remained but the leaf skeleton and upon 

 the cloth a beautiful double design that, unless washed, would 

 keep distinct and unfaded through long, long months. 



Of the rose family also not one is of forest size. The most 

 popular garden tree in all Japan is the plum, whose single or 

 double, white, rose or red blossoms appear before the leaves 

 in February and March, clothing the stalks and twigs in garments 

 of beauty, concealing all l^ut the tracery of the branches now 

 made soft with bloom. Great care and labor is spend in train- 

 ing it, for, with the Japanese, beauty is as much a thing of 

 form as of color, and is a term applied not to a part but the 

 whole of an object admired. Plums are dwarfed for potting. 



