HORTICULTURE. 



273 



extolled and sung are those of the Tatsuta-gawa, the Tatsuta- 

 momiji at Tatsuta in Yamato. The Momiji in their motley or 

 simple red autumn colours are also favourite subjects for re- 

 presentation with Japanese artists. Besides them, the Dodan 

 {Enkianthus japonicus, Hooker), the Azaleas and other garden 

 plants are noted for the beautiful colouring of their leaves before 

 they fall. The autumn dress of the foliaceous forest is much more 

 varied and rich in colour than even that of the Atlantic forests of 

 North America, so much praised (see vol. i. p. 137). When this 

 has disappeared and the winter rest has begun, the Japanese flower- 

 calendar still points to a limited number of fine ornamental plants 

 which for the most part have been domesticated in Europe also, 

 and are much more valued here than in their East-Asiatic home. 

 These are chiefly Yatsu-de {Aralia japonica, Thunb.), Hiragi {Olea 

 aqiiifolmm, Thunb.), and Sasan-kuwa {Camellia sasanqua, Thunb.) 

 which like the tea bush bloom in November and December, and 

 Tsubaki {Camellia japonica, L.) which, as an out-of-door plant, 

 shows 'its first flowers in January. 



Foliaceous trees are only exceptionally found as umbrageous trees 

 in the Japanese cities, as at Niigata, and never on the country 

 roads. In many places these roads are beautified with evergreen 

 Coniferae which are often several centuries old and make a grand 

 impression. Euonymus radicans or some wild vine, or more rarely 

 the ivy, climbs up and covers their powerful trunks. The finest of 

 these trees is the Sugi or Cryptomeria, which appears here and 

 there, principally around Nikko. The great Sugi-avenue, of which 

 a phototype is given vol. i. p. 150, is the most celebrated and 

 unique of kind. Retinispora too, especially Hi~no-ki trees, are in 

 some places put to this use. 



The Matsu, or pine, {Pinus Massoniaita and P, densiflord), is the 

 most frequent and most popular umbrageous tree on the Japanese 

 roads. The hand of the gardener in this case has not changed 

 its figure. This great tree, the favourite of the Japanese people, 

 appears here in its most picturesque forms, primitive and bizarre ; 

 with trunks straight and bent ; with branches often twisted in 

 every direction, knotty and extended, and covered with a close 

 mass of dark green needles. There is no symmetry, but the eye is 

 pleased, and rests with satisfaction upon these primeval, powerful 

 and picturesque figures — these silent witnesses of a long past time. 

 How many storms they have defied — how many designs for the 

 beautifying of nunberless specimens of art industry they have 

 furnished — how many eyes and hearts they have rejoiced ! This 

 is the tree which, bold and strong, speaks most surely of the 

 preference of the people for odd, irregular form ; but on the other 

 hand, when it appears singly in the garden and temple grove, it is 

 more than all others the subject of the gardener's moods and' 

 tricks. Here it has been forced into all possible dwarfed and 

 abnormal shapes, which excite not a little astonishment at what 



II. T 



