PREFACE 



j|N the short space allotted for this prefatory note it is 

 difficult to convey to the public the interesting history 

 connected with many of the plants and their g-reat 

 intrinsic value. 



As was the experience of the earlier importations of porce- 

 lain, ivory carvings, bronzes, lacquers and curios, there was 

 comparatively a few objects that were of real artistic merit and 

 value, but a vast quantity of cheap, gaudy things that were 

 entirely foreign to the Japanese ideals of art, made only to sell 

 in a foreign land, so has it been with plants and flowers. 



The love of flowers and plants is a national trait of the 

 Japanese, and their care and training is a constant source of 

 occupation and pleasure. With a purely commercial idea in 

 view, it has been mostly the ordinary varieties of plants that 

 have heretofore been sent to this country. 



Of the professionally trained and more valuable classes of 

 plants, only the well-to-do can afford to possess. And it is 

 only by years of constant care and attention that the Japanese 

 plants can be brought to that state of perfection required by 

 the Japanese connoisseur and amateur. 



The present collection has been personally secured by the 

 undersigned. All parts of Japan have been visited by them and 

 searched for the best specimens of the most skillful tree trainers 

 and landscape gardeners of that country. 



The whole collection, representing as it does years of labor, 

 in securing and at a great outlay, is the best that has been 

 brought together, and to-day nowhere in the world, not even 

 in Japan, could so fine a collection be found. The greatest 

 masters of the Japanese horticultural art and of landscape 

 gardening are the contributors to this collection. 



