Old and quaint pine trees

The gardener's model pine tree is not the ordinary pine tree of the forest, but the abnormal specimen which age and tempest have moulded into quaint and unusual shapes. (See Fig. 1.) But whether or not the Japanese conception be the ideal art-expression of nature, it is undoubtedly governed in its execution by a scrupulous attention to ï¾µsthetic rules. Considerations of scale, proportion, unity, balance, congruity, and all that tends to produce artistic repose and harmony, are carefully preserved throughout the designs.