ii 4 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



loss — still the man himself must have reaped 

 much as he laboured there, and as his thoughts 

 went back to his days in Japan, where he had 

 been so popular as a western "medicine man" 

 as well as a botanist. Even Holland, the land 

 of bulbs and of tree and shrub culture, owes 

 a heavy debt to the man who brought his 

 curiosities to their museums, and his- rare 

 plants to their nurseries and gardens. Like 

 many others, however, Siebold was ahead of 

 his time. 



" Things Japanese " were not in the ascen- 

 dant sixty or seventy years ago as they are to- 

 day. We do not know for certain whether 

 Siebold was influenced in his travels and studies 

 by the writings of Kaempfer and of Carl Peter 

 Thunberg, a Swede and pupil of Linnaeus, 

 who, after adventures at the Cape and in Java, 

 spent five years at Yedo and Nagasaki and 

 published his " Flora Japonica" (note the same 

 title) in 1784. Thunberg was in England, 

 prior to his return to Sweden, in 1779, where 

 he saw Dr. Solander, Sir Joseph Banks, and 

 many other botanists and gardeners. His 

 country elected him as successor to Linnaeus as 

 demonstrator of botany in the University at 

 Upsala, and he died in 1828. It does not ap- 

 pear to be generally known to present day 

 lovers of plants Japanese that Thunberg wrote 

 some " Observations of the Flora of Japan," 

 which were published in the " Transactions of 

 the Linnaean Society of London," and which 

 are worth the attention of those who may not 

 hitherto have seen them. Kaempfer (1651- 

 171 6), Thunberg ( 1 743-1 828), and Siebold 

 ( 1 796-1 866), by their works and in collect- 

 ing specimens and in their writings, were the 

 pioneers of Japanese botany, and no doubt 

 the results of their travels influenced more 

 modern travellers and collectors in China and 

 Japan. Men like Fortune, John Gould Veitch, 

 Maries, and Wilson continued, and, in the 

 last case mentioned, are still continuing, the 

 work of exploration which these three men 

 began. 



The latest phase of British gardening (if 

 we except the moraine bed for Alpine plants) 

 is the present fashion of making what are 

 termed "Japanese Gardens" under an English 

 sky. It is yet too early to prophesy as to the 

 fitness or the beauty of these, and, like the 

 pleached alley, the maze, or the pergola, they 

 must run the gauntlet of time and public 

 opinion. In any case such gardens are to be 

 seen at Holland House, Kensington ; and at 

 Gunnersbury House, Acton, W. There is cer- 

 tainly a charm about them, and they are inter- 

 esting, bringing together, as they do, not only 

 Japanese plants of all the best kinds, but stone 

 lanterns, bronze urns, and figures of animals 

 such as storks and lizards, bamboo bridges over 

 watery pools or canals, with winding paths 

 of stepping stones wandering " there and 

 back," through masses of Iris, Lilies, Rhapis, 

 Bamboos, Chusan Palms, and other beautiful 

 things. 



Not alone have we progressed in our know- 

 ledge of Japan during recent years, but the 

 nurserymen and trade gardeners in Japan, at 

 Yokohama and elsewhere, are now eager to 

 meet us half-way while Japanese botanists and 

 other of their students now graduate at our 

 English Universities ; and, as I have before 

 said, Japan sends her experts in the cultivation 

 and importation of dwarfed trees, and in the 

 selection of Japanese fabrics, pottery, furni- 

 ture, and old arms and armour, to settle in 

 London and educate our Western taste in the 

 matter of their beautiful Eastern things. 



Some of these new Japanese gardens are 

 far from artistic or from being Japanese, and 

 we believe that they cannot be successfully 

 done except by those who know Japan. Mr. 

 Alfred Parsons, who has travelled much there, 

 tells us that what they do in gardens is bound 

 up with their history, geography, and litera- 

 ture, and other things, unknown to most who 

 have formed such gardens here. 



F, W, Burbidge. 



