THE JAPANESE GARDEN 185 



asking if design does not play almost too large a part in 

 Japanese gardening ? Does it not almost override the 

 plants ? Is not the Japanese gardener apt to be so well 

 satisfied with his admirably proportioned scheme as to 

 give inadequate attention to the culture of the plants ? 

 I do not assert that it is so, but the doubt has arisen in 

 my mind, fostered by what I have seen. If there is any- 

 thing in it our course is clear it is to borrow from the 

 Japanese his acknowledged points of excellence, and to 

 graft on to them our own admitted skill as cultivators. 

 Certainly there can be no perfect gardening unless the 

 plants used are good examples of their kind, such as 

 the ardent flower-lovers of Britain and America rejoice 

 in producing. For my own part, if completeness and 

 good culture could not go together I would not hesitate 

 to sacrifice the former ; but it is unthinkable that the 

 person who has the inherent capacity to learn successful 

 plant-culture has not also the latent power of acquiring 

 a sense of harmony and finish. 



There is an element of the mechanical about Japanese 

 gardening, so far as I am acquainted with it, which we 

 must recognize just as honestly as we must acknowledge 

 its order. It may be suggested that this display of obvious 

 craftsmanship arises out of the design, and is an insepar- 

 able part of it. I hesitate to accept the suggestion. If" 

 it exists at all it exists because the gardener has become 

 too completely merged in the draughtsman. But the 

 earnest flower-lover will always become paramount. 

 Given a due appreciation for, and an adequate skill in 

 growing, plants, the floral features of the garden will 

 swiftly obliterate all traces of the craft which called it 

 into being. It is not the little stream, with its miniature 

 bridge, which will first catch the eye, but the plants 

 growing in and around it. The open-sided tea-house on 



