THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 



125 



of this central walk were miscellaneous collections of plants, so 

 thickly planted as to nearly hide the earth. There was no 

 attempt at greensward ; and if the ground showed at all, it was 

 covered with a rough porous rock (Ohio tuffstein) which soon 

 assumed a greenish and mossy tint. The spaces between the 

 higher plants were sometimes covered with low, grass-like 

 plants and dwarf forms of Azalea Ind'tca. The mossy rock 

 bordered all the walks, and upon little mounds of it various 

 dwarf and contorted trees were set, either in soil in the hol- 

 lows, or in blue-lacquered pots. The water area extended fully 

 one-third the length of the entire space. It originated in a 

 square stone well near the northern extremity, the water being 

 supplied from a pipe in the bottom. The water bubbled up in 

 the center of the well, flowed over the side and ran in a broad 

 stream near the outer edge of the garden for a distance of sev- 

 eral feet, when it broadened into an irregular fish pond nearly 

 twenty feet wide and as many feet long, dotted with pictur- 

 esque islets and pots of fern, and spanned by the arched bridge 

 already mentioned. This bridge was a unique feature.. Its 

 bed was made of two curved log sleepers with bark on, across 

 which was laid a row of smaller logs, the cut ends presenting 

 themselves to the observer. A dense layer of fagots or twigs 

 was laid upon this corduroy to hold the soil, which was now 

 placed on, being held at the edges by a margin of the mossy 

 stone. The edges of this bridge were thickly planted, on the 

 rear with blue-green sprays of Juniperus littoralis projecting over 

 the water, and in front with large and small azaleas, ferns, and 

 red-berried ardisias. Long fern-rhizomes, tied in withes with 

 moss inside, were bent and twisted into grotesque figures, 

 which were suspended here and there, and in the moist atmos- 

 phere these sent up tender fronds. Two immense stone lan- 

 terns of grotesque pattern comprised the architectural features 

 of the garden. 



A rustic box, about five feet long by three feet wide, 

 standing upon a foundation of stones, showed a miniature land- 

 scape garden. There were hills and dales, three bridges, five 

 houses, a dwarf Thuya obtusa and Pinus densiflora, each many 

 years old, five miniature ardisia trees, and no less than twenty 

 other plants in this little space, together with a large and irreg- 

 ular water basin. This was a plan or model of a Japanese 

 garden. It was such a plan as the Japanese gardener expects 

 to make before he proceeds to the improvement of grounds. 

 It serves the purpose of a map. 



There were many curious plants in the Japanese garden. 

 The chief interest centered about two twisted trees of Thuya 

 obtusa, which were three feet high, and a hundred years old. 



