|
The dwarf trees which the
Japanese horticulturists are showing at the Paris Exhibition are attracting
much attention. Pines, Thujas and Cedars, said to be 100 or 150 years old, are only
eighteen inches high, and with such specimens it would be easy to have a
coniferous forest on a balcony. These arboreal deformities are produced by
great labor, and, if the truth is told about their ages, this work of arresting
the tree's development and
forcing it into contorted forms must be persisted in by several generations of
foresters. All this painstaking is hardly paid for by the beauty of the
resulting abortions, but, as has been suggested, a look at these trees will explain where the fantastic
forms come from which serve as models for the plants we see on the lacquered
trays, bronzes and embroideries which come from |
|
1 In the "Notes" section, Garden and Forest, Vol. 2, Issue 78, August 21, 1889, pg. 408. |