HISTORY & DESCRIPTION OF STYLES 43 



for games have no part in their schemes, it is 

 really possible for them to imitate nature. And 

 not only does a Japanese garden reproduce scenery, 

 but it also presents a definite poetical conception 

 suited to its owner by means of a code of symbols 

 expressed in rock and tree arrangements. 



Contrasts of form and line are of the first import- 

 ance, colour being quite secondary. A twisted 

 pine and a weeping willow are considered a beau- 

 tiful combination, and architec- 

 tural features, such as granite 

 lanterns, will be half veiled by 

 the branches of a tree. (Diagram 

 12.) The colour in azaleas and 

 maples is appreciated, but the 

 bushes are clipped if necessary to 

 the design in spite of the damage 

 to bloom. If chrysanthemums 

 and paeonies are required they are 

 grouped in specially prepared 

 beds near the women's quarters. 

 Form being all important, such trees as coni- 

 fers are in most request, and those bent by age 

 or craft are valued. The training of trees into 

 fantastic shapes is an important business with 

 the nursery gardeners. Pruning and watchful 

 clipping produce the effects of deformed old age, 

 and the landscape gardener employs these, propped 

 up by bamboo poles, to add to the delusion at 

 picturesque points in his design. Flowering trees, 



DIAGRAM 12. 



