144 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



jealously guarded against inquisitive vulgar eyes, and will only 

 be seen by Europeans when the safeguards against intrusion 

 are broken down by artifice, bribery, or treachery. So far as to 

 the Japanese theory of the blue Chrysanthemum. It will profit 

 nothing to multiply examples ; but I will refer to one amongst 

 many in the " Keramic Arts of Japan," the valuable work of 

 Messrs. Audsley and Bowes, [n plate 15 of that work, repre- 

 senting pheasants and flowers, occurs a cluster of blue Chrysan- 

 themums that have a more natural appearance than the average 

 of examples. They are certainly reflexed flowers, and possibly 

 were pompons of large size. Near them are some incurved 

 Japs of a colour approaching scarlet. I cannot be wrong in 

 describing these as blue, and yet the colour is of a tone that we 

 may really hope to attain, for it is removed from the full deep 

 azure of the example of the Cloisonne jar, and is sufficiently 

 touched with rosy hues to permit the description of it as rosy 

 lavender blue. I submit that a colour of this kind may be hoped 

 for, as in accordance with the range of variation in the direction 

 of blue already witnessed, as a fact. And I submit further that 

 a fanciful artist, with a flower of this kind before him, might be 

 tempted to suppress the red tone and intensify the blue tone 

 without being over-fanciful in his picturing. 



The flowers occasionally met with in Japanese art are the 

 Chrysanthemum, Pasony, Wistaria, Lily, Hydrangea, Iris, Car- 

 nation, Convolvulus, and Water Lily. But the Kiku stands 

 before all, and attains to the highest degree of artistic impor- 

 tance when conventionalised after the fashion of a star, with a 

 definite number of rays for every special signification. 



The Imperial Crest, termed the Kiku-mon, is a Chrysan- 

 themum of the flat star pattern with sixteen rays or florets. 

 And the question may now be put — if the flower is conven- 

 tionalised in form, may it not also be falsified in colour ? 



Possibly we talk too freely of the fidelity to nature of the 

 artists of Japan. They are human and inventive, equally 

 capable of serious truth and boisterous fun, and in burlesque 

 inexhaustible. What are their dragons that wind around their 

 bowls but magnificent nightmares that carry the facts of nature 

 into the region of the impossible, and justify any doubt we may 

 entertain as to the bona fides of their painted flowers ? 



A chronological study of garden varieties will of necessity 



