sional European chrysanthemum-grower, who is accustomed nowadays to handle numerous splendid varieties of this beautiful flower. Let him remember, however, that the impulse towards chrysanthemum-growing, and even most of the actual varieties now shown, came from Japan scarcely more than twenty years ago.
Bouquet-making is not left in the Far-East, as it is in Europe, to individual caprice. Europeans are, in this respect, wild children of nature. The Chinese and Japanese have made an art of it, not to say a mystery demanding long and arduous study. Indeed, they invoke the aid of Confucianism itself, and arrange flowers philosophically, with due regard to the active and passive principles of nature, and in obedience to certain traditional rules which have been jealously handed down in the various flower-schools. It is well-worth the while of any intelligent enquirer to peruse Mr. Conder's beautifully illustrated work on this subject, though, to be sure, the whole gist of the matter may be given in half-a-dozen words:—a "floral composition" must consist of three sprays, the longest in the middle generally bent bow-like, a second half its length branching out on one side, and a third, a quarter of its length, on the other. To obtain proper curvature, the stems are heated over a brazier, or else kept in position by means of wires and other artifices. Whatever may be thought of the so-called flower philosophy, the reader will at least have gained acquaintance with a graceful and intricate art, and with a curious chapter in the history of the human mind. Linear effect, and a certain balance or proportion achieved by means of studied irregularity, are the key-note and the dominant of Japanese floral compositions. The guiding principle is not harmony of colour.
An enthusiastic local critic, who is up to the ears in love with all things Japanese, opines that the Japanese linear arrangement of stems and leaves stands "at an unmeasurable height above the barbaric massing of colours that constitutes the whole of the corresponding art in the West. Such a verdict will scarcely find acceptance with those who esteem colour to be nature's
