carefully packed in moss. The flowers 
and leaves are then woven into the 
desired shape by dexterous fingers, 
the floral pictures kept in the shade 
and abundantly watered, and the plants 
go on growing happily, far differently 
from our flowers at exhibitions, which 
are snipped off so that they wither and 
die in a few hours. 
During the festivals the flower mar¬ 
kets are open in the evening, and at 
that time the majority of the buyers 
are the working people, who have no 
costly vases at home, but who do not 
lack a bit of bamboo-cane in which to 
place a twig or flower and contem¬ 
plate its beauty. 
The arrangement of flowers in 
Japan is not haphazard or left to 
chance, but everything about it is 
arranged by laws. There are certain 
flowers which are used for fete days 
only; certain others which are abso- 
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