The Garden Magazine , July, 1923 
311 
the two latter, though more beautiful, are doubtfully hardy at 
Boston, and may be treated as annuals if started early. They 
can all be raised from the seed offered by several dealers, and 
plants are obtainable. 
Not so tall are Salvia virgata and variety nemorosa, but I do 
not know them yet. 
Dainty Relatives of Butter-and-Eggs 
T HAS always seemed to me that since Butter-and-Eggs 
(Linaria vulgaris) is such a sturdy, showy plant it ought to be 
broken of its bucking habits for garden service. Two sister 
species are perennial yellow Snapdragons, but 1 fear the crowns 
enlarge fast enough, though they don’t really spread badly. 
Both these 1 raised from imported seed, and 1 hope they are 
true to name. This is the way 1 tell them apart: 
Leaves very narrow and glaucous: fl. yellow with orange throat— L. vulgaris. 
Leaves oblong, glaucous; fl. bright yellow, without orange— L. dalmatica. 
Leaves ovate, gray-green; fl. deep yellow with darker throat— L. macedo- 
nica. 
There is also a variety speciosa of L. macedonica blooming 
from June to frost, as does the wild weed; seedlings start to 
bloom the first autumn. 
Foamy Flowered Meadow-Rues 
O NE of the most recent groups to get into the border is the 
Meadow-rue or Thalictrum. Our two or three native 
species are wild as can be, but from Europe and lately from 
China we have good border plants in white, yellow, and purple. 
The Pacific Coast offers others, mostly like our Eastern ones. 
The foliage effect of all of them is very similar; the color of the 
flowers, with height and season of bloom, seems to offer the easy 
way of telling them apart. The most distinct is T. dipterocar- 
pum, seed of which can be obtained abroad. The leaflets are 
very pale glaucous green. The flower panicles rise to 3 or 4 
feet, July and August, their glory being their color, a rose-mauve, 
or pale purple if you prefer. There is no other “baby’s-breath” 
flower of just this color. Though its native home is Yunnan, it 
grows as readily as if a native weed. On trial now I have 
T. Delavayi and T. dasycarpum, the first as seed from Thompson 
& Morgan, the second as plants from Horsford. 
ABOUT GARDENING IN 
OLD JAPAN 
H. H. MANCHESTER 
Author of “The Pictorial History of The Garden’’ (G.M. for January, February, April, June, 
1922) and other articles 
The Early Formal Garden Founded on 
Symbolism and the Tea-house as a Centre of Religious Festivity 
Editors’ Note: The spell of the Japanese is much 
upon us nowadays—scarcely a Flower Show without its 
“Japanese Arrangements’’ or a community without its 
handful of gardens a la Japan. The pity is that, admiring 
their art and misled by its apparent simplicity, we imitate 
blindly and, missing its spirit, totally fail of our mark. 
Imitation is at best a futile and soulless performance 
whereas intelligent observation of Oriental ways may teach 
much. Their artistic expression is great because it is an ex¬ 
pression, they are actually saying something with their 
carefully arranged bits of stone, their little streams flow¬ 
ing docilely to order, their dwarf Pines shaped with a cun¬ 
ning that conceals its artificiality. The gardens of the 
East speak a language which we only dimly apprehend 
and can never really understand, a language rooted in 
the mysticism of the far past unshared by us of the 
West, newly sprung as we are and of a wholly different 
heritage. Their true message for us is this: beauty can 
be builded only upon sincerity; not by aping but by 
creating to meet the spirit of the countryside can the 
American garden take on a loveliness like the Japanese 
and yet unlike because characteristically its own. 
^fT^IHE EARLIEST form of the Japanese 
fl§ ar den seems to go back to the be- 
fllfcil gi nn i n g °f the Christian era. In the 
Heina period, according to Seiroku 
Honda, ornamental gardens were constructed 
to offer a view from the northern chamber. 
In the centre was a pond with islands, small 
waterfalls, fishing pavilions, and wooden plank 
bridges. At the background were artificial hills 
with trees and shrubs. The trees included 
Pines, Cypresses, Weeping Willows, Maples, 
Cherries, Plums, Peach, and Spindle-trees; 
while among the most prominent flowers were 
Camellias and Azaleas. None of the ancient 
Japanese gardens of this type have survived, 
but their existence is indicated by literary ref¬ 
Poets in the West Garden, by Hine 
Taizan, first half of the 19th cen¬ 
tury. Note the grotesque rocks at 
centre under large Pine, also above it 
erences; and on comparing this description 
with that of the mediaeval Chinese garden, one 
may see a basic resemblance in the artificial 
hills, cascades, and ponds. Nevertheless, it was 
in the next period that the Chinese influence 
became most clearly manifest. 
The second period was due to the introduc¬ 
tion of Buddhism in the 6 th Century, which 
brought in Buddhist monasteries, temples, and 
burying places. In the course of the next few 
centuries the Buddhists, in the gardens which 
they laid out around their monasteries and 
ten'pies, began to imitate the picturesque places 
connected with the life of Buddha and the vari¬ 
ous saints. Artificial hills were built to repre¬ 
sent mountains, rockeries constructed in place 
of crags, ponds for lakes, and small cascades 
as miniatures of great waterfalls. 
The full development of this style was 
reached in the 12 th century, or the Kama¬ 
kura period. The copying of natural scenes 
was extended to imitation in miniature, and 
imitation was carried into symbolism. The 
rocks were made to symbolize the various 
Buddhist saints, and were assigned religious and 
moral attributes. The streams were forced to 
flow from east to west, as the opposite direc¬ 
tion was considered unlucky. Where water 
was not available in quantities, imitation or 
dried up cascades were constructed of stones 
while dried up streams and ponds were rep¬ 
resented by sand and pebbles. Though these 
characteristics were continued in the later 
Japanese gardens, such methods were still car¬ 
ried out chiefly by the priests, and were not 
as yet general. 
