IN NO other country is the artistic use of flowers so well understood or the art practiced in such perfection as in Japan. This old art is to become a new one in America and Europe. It is old in Japan, but new to western nations. Only recently has the art been reduced to form and theory. A few months ago, however, Mr. Gordon, an architect in the employ of the Japanese government, who has formulated the principles of the art, expounded the system before an audience of foreigners in Tokio, the capital of Japan. We make some extracts from the London Times report of the lecture, which are well worthy the attention of all who love plant life.

In America and Europe floral art consists almost exclusively of the use of the blossoms, which are crowded together in rich masses of color with little attention to individual form and often with total disregard of the lines of stems, branches, and of the character of growth; in Japan, on the contrary, the basis of all flower designs is a series of harmonizing lines in which the stems and branches play the most important part. This instinctive perception of the beauty of harmonious lines is everywhere noticeable in the arts of Japan.

The art of flower arrangement, like all other arts in Japan, has a long history and has its various schools. At first it appears to have been mainly connected with Buddhism ; then indigenous schools arose, instructed by some men of more than usual originality and mental vigor. In fact, its history appears to have taken very much the same course as that of the pictorial arts.

The most popular school of the present day is the Enshiu. According to the doctrines of this sect or school, all flower arrangements were built about an imaginary skeleton formed of lines of balanced curves. Symmetry, the most elementary kind of balance in composition, is eschewed, but a more subtile harmony was obtained, far more in conformity with the principles of beauty as discoverable in natural forms. The ordinary flower arrangements are two, three, five or seven-lined, and a somewhat different character is bestowed upon these lines according as they are applied to standing or to hanging arrangements.

Intimately connected with the character of flower compositions is the form of the vessels employed, of which there are several kinds adapted for standing, resting against the wall or a pillar, or suspending. Among these are certain curious vases made of bamboo cylinders, with several side openings intended for the arrangement of flowers in several stages. In these compositions, which contain several kinds of plants or trees in combination, the locality of growth and special character are never lost sight of, a distinction being always preserved between trees, land plants, and water plants.

In selecting and arranging flowers the appropriate season and, in the case of plants common to several seasons, the peculiar character of the particular season, are never lost sight of. Used in combination, some hold higher rank than others, and with different varieties of the same species the colors have a certain order of precedence. White blossoms as a rule rank first, but there are several exceptions to this rule. The idea of sex is applied in several ways to the character of leaves, stems, and blossoms in combination, the leading idea of such distinctions being to produce a pleasing variety and to avoid redundancy. Many curious fancies exist with regard to the selection of trees and plants. Those having poisonous properties in stem, root or flower, and some suggestive of ominous associations, either on account of their names or owing to accidental tradition, came under the ban of ill-luck and are studiously avoided.

A good deal of ceremonial is mixed up with the practice of arranging flowers. Flower gatherings are often held, at which it is usual for the guests to make flower compositions, in which case certain etiquette is to be followed both by visitors and by host. Special occasions, such as weddings, comings of age, house-warmings, welcomings, farewell gatherings, and anniversaries all have appropriate flowers and appropriate methods of designing.

Harmony is required between the flower groups and wall fixtures in front of which they were placed. This relates both to harmony of lines and proportions as well as to harmony of character. One must not clash with the value, motive, or effect of the other, and if possible the combined arrangement of picture and flower group should have a continuity of idea. For example, in the case of a picture representing a water landscape being used, the flowers arranged in front might be irises or other water plants, suggestive of the foreground of the landscape.

Some of the most popular flowers are treated in a variety of ways, at first sight seemingly capricious enough, but actually founded upon a close observance of natural laws. Combined branches of cherry blossom are to have buds in the centre and top, and blossoms at the base and sides, inasmuch as the cherry tree commenced blossoming from the lower side branches. In the same way arrangements of autumn leaves are to be redder near the top, because banks of maple trees become reddened first towards the top of the slope.

After the general arrangements of the composition into harmonious lines, special attention is devoted to the distribution of blossoms, buds and leaves. With large-flowered plants, such as the chrysanthemum and paeony, an over-crowding of blossoms is studiously avoided, and full flowers, buds, and half-opened flowers are distributed with careful regard to variety of form and balance of mass. Certain plants, such as the Chinese orchid, are valued only for their fine oval leaves, and with certain other flowering water plants, like the iris and narcissus, the long blade-shaped leaves receive more attention than the blossoms. The judicious grouping, bending, and turning of these leaves, so as to reveal their different surfaces without redundancy, form an important part of the art.

Fanciful classifications into male and female principles and into imaginary functions, such as dew-dripping leaf, dew-holding leaf, spring leaf and winter leaf, come to the assistance of the designer in producing becoming effects.

Skill in manipulation is only to be acquired by patient practice. The artificial form imparted to branches and stems is obtained by bending, and, in the case of unyielding material, by means of more violent crushing, splitting, and even temporary bandaging. Methods are in use for increasing the vitality of certain branches by means of drugs, fire, and hot water. The two last methods are applied to the extremeties of cut branches to increase their power of suction, and the drugs, consisting of tea, cloves, and spices, were employed as stimulants. The firm fixing of the stem or branches at their base is obtained by means of slit wooden holders placed crosswise in the mouth of the vessel or in a bamboo tube hidden in the vessel. For water plants placed in wide, shallow receptacles, fancy metal fixtures are often employed in such forms as crabs, scissors, horses' bits, and other things common and curious.

Manzanita arctostaphylos of Mount Shasta. (See page 10).