Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/58

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JAPANESE GARDENS

principles of the art were applied to the making of such gardens in Europe or America, omitting only the typical architectural adjuncts,—which are not essentials,—no one, although instantly struck by their quiet appeal to the heart, would consider them the product of a different and alien art and land. Unluckily, it is just those needless features which are reproduced, and the true principles of the science are disregarded—not even so much as the letter, much less the spirit being put there. But if a presentation informed by the real intentions of Japanese landscape gardening were offered, it would be a different thing. Such gardens would not be found unusual, except for beauty, and the sense of repose and tranquillity they might give. They would, after all, never appear as exotic as do the beautiful Japanese Lilies, golden-barred, and crimson-and-brown-freckled, and red, whose bulbs, imported in such large quantities by us, have now become a recognized feature in English gardens. They would soon be regarded like the many beautiful flowering trees and shrubs we cultivate nowadays, which only bear, or suggest, the description ‘japonica’ to the expert. Dwarf trees, except in flower-pots, cannot be considered typical of their gardens, as, if they are planted in the ground, they cannot be stunted. Trees twisted and bent into the curious, weird shapes that the Japanese gardener alone seems to know how to get, look as though