An examination of landscape gardening, as taught and practised by the Japanese, reveals an art of considerable refinement, built upon a charming system of ethics. Following, with but rare exceptions, the model of the scenery around him, the designer is not tempted to represent nature in combinations with which he is unfamiliar. It being contrary to his principles to admit into compositions exotic productions, with the conditions and surroundings of which he is imperfectly acquainted, he invariably selects as his material the vegetation and natural products of his own country. The resulting arrangements have always the merit of consistency, and are rarely disfigured by hybrid and incongruous elements. Even the structural ornaments introduced, partake of the character of national constructions and monuments, and are therefore suggestive of the real landscape of Japan, or of the kindred type of China. Garden bridges, pagodas, shrines, and arbours, are but miniature representations of the larger rustic structures which occur as a part of every rural view.
