selves in creeks and bays after a most curious fashion, while brown
hamlets here and there fringe the coast line. Nagasaki is in the
extreme south of Japan, a city second only to Yokohama in commercial
importance. A sad interest attaches to the small but lofty island of
Pappenburg, which stands like a sentinel guarding the entrance to the
harbor. It is the Tarpeian Rock of the far East. During the persecution
of the Christians in the seventeenth century, the steep cliff which
forms the seaward side of the island was an execution point, and from
here men and women who declined to abjure their faith were cast headlong
on the sea-washed rocks five hundred feet below. The harbor is
surrounded by lofty elevations. Tall, dark pines and a verdant
undergrowth mark the deep ravines and sloping hillsides, upon which
European dwellings are seen overlooking the bay. If we climb the path
among these hills we occasionally pass a Buddhist temple, and come upon
many wild-flowers, shaded by oaks and camphor-trees of great size and
beautiful foliage, with occasional specimens of the Japanese wax-tree.
Still further up, the hills are covered with dark, moss-grown
gravestones, bearing curious characters engraven upon them, and marking
the sleeping-places of bygone generations. The unbroken quiet of this
city of the dead contrasts vividly with the hum of busy life which comes
up to us from the town with its population of a hundred thousand souls.
As to the products of this locality, they are mostly figured porcelain,
embroidered silks, japanned goods, ebony and tortoise-shell finely
carved and manufactured into toy ornaments. Every small, low house has a
shop in front quite open to the street; but small as these houses are,
room is nearly always found in the rear or at the side for a little
flower-garden, fifteen or twenty feet square, where dwarf trees flourish
amid hillocks of turf and ferns, with here and there a tub of goldfish.
Azaleas, laurels, and tiny clumps of bamboos, are the most common plants
to be seen in these charming little spots of greenery.

Botanists declare Japan to be one of the richest of all countries in its
vegetation. The cultivation of the soil is thoroughly and skilfully
systematized, the greatest possible results being obtained from a given
area of land. This is partly due to the careful mode of enrichment
applied in liquid form. Its flora is spontaneous and magnificent,
repaying the smallest attention by a develo