52 THE JAPANESE FLORAL CALENDAR. 



scapes. "It is, therefore, at once a picture and a poem ; perhaps 

 even more a poem than a picture." Sometimes, also, sermons may 

 be attempted and abstract moral ideas, such as charity, faith, piety, 

 content, calm, and connubial bliss, may be expressed in the beauties 

 of nature. 



CAMELLIA JAPONICA. 



Japan is a land of flowers, "a veritable garden of flowers" ; but 

 it maintains a nobilitv in floral as well as social institutions. There 

 are about a dozen hana which are reckoned among' first-class ; and 



