42 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904. 



cover an area of three-fourths of an acre. The height is not 

 great, only about forty feet, and the hmbs turning downward 

 are supported by wooden posts. Great holes in the trunk are 

 filled with plaster, and many of the larger branches are com- 

 pletely roofed, to protect them from the storm and sun. We 

 are more familiar with the dwarfed forms, many of which 

 have been imported to this country and sold at fabulous prices. 

 A tree of only a few inches may be a hundred years old with 

 every characteristic of its great age except that of size. Japan- 

 ese gardeners are very skilful in training these trees, both large 

 and small. In a temple garden familiar to me is a junk under 

 full sail. Its hull and rigging are perfect; and all formed of 

 the limbs and leaves of a living tree. That tree is tended 

 even to the care of each individual needle, while its branches 

 and smallest twigs are held to the desired form by bamboo rods. 

 In connection with the trees of Japan, I ought to mention 

 that growth of universal use, the bamboo, a tree in size and 

 strength yet in truth a grass of the field. About the word 

 'M^amboo" might be written the daily life of the people. The 

 mountain sides and the forest floors are covered with bamboo 

 grass from three to six feet high, making traveling impossible 

 save by well-beaten paths. Every village has its grove of 

 bamboo trees growing in smooth glossy splendor fifty and 

 sixty feet high, waving their feathery tops in each breath of 

 the breeze. The mature stalks are used in a thousand ways, 

 from the building of a house to the making of an umbrella, 

 while the young sprouts are cultivated for food. As an object 

 of beauty the bamboo, whether singly or in a grove, is a delight 

 to the eye. A few years ago the Emperor gave forth as the 

 subject for poetic contemplation and composition, snow on the 

 bamboo; and truly no more beautiful sight can be imagined. 

 We of New England know well the beauty of the graceful 

 birches as, snow-laden, they bend by our country roadsides. 

 In place of their silvery trunks and leafless twigs, scarcely seen 

 in the mantle of snow, picture the sheen of the bamboo's pure 

 green and the quivering grace of its finger-like leaves playing 

 hide and seek in the snow. 



