90 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898. 



agricultural department of the government, which shows that 

 they are well up in architecture, and can build beautiful houses. 

 It shows that they have been earnest and active in tinding out 

 what other nations have been doing. They send their best 

 statesmen out into the world to gather up information. Then 

 they think it all over, talk it all over, always improve upon 

 it and work it out in their own way. 



In the springtime you must go out of doors to appreciate 

 Japan. Here is Tokio in cherry time. Their cherry trees bear 

 no fruit, but they have wonderfully beautiful blossoms. Here 

 is a street planted with cherry trees. You get an idea of some 

 of the parks in Tokio in cherry time. The cherry blossoms 

 in Japan are three or four times as large as our cherry 

 blossoms. 



Here are the cherry trees in full bloom in the country, and it 

 gives you an idea of a country road. Look around you in this 

 delightful country and you will find a pleasant landscape on 

 every side. In some of the gardens of Tokio, you will find the 

 gardener to be an artist. Here is one of the ways in which the 

 gardener seeks to make a surprise for his friends. Here is an 

 ornamental figure made out of morning-glories, and you will 

 find images of numerous wild boars and lions, and human beings 

 in different postures, all made out of flowers. I need not 

 enumerate the beautiful flowers which we have imported from 

 Japan, the chrysanthemum, the rose, the peony and others. 



Some of the ladies, especially of the upper class, have to take 

 up floriculture as a part of their education. They have to learn 

 especially about flowers for decorating purposes. Their idea of 

 beauty in floriculture is not one great mass, a great wreath or pil- 

 low of flowers made up of all colors, but if they want to illustrate 

 the very acme of beauty they take one little flower, perhaps a 

 lily of the valley, with its one leaf, and place it in a little vase, 

 which is well adapted to receive it, and this will be the only 

 ornament in the room. They do not try to mass blossoms in a 

 great bouquet as do we. The longer I lived among this people 

 the more I believed they had the right idea of floral art. If you 

 wish to appreciate the true beauty of flowers, you do not want a 



