de. These are in great variety,
and some of them in flower. It was especially pleasant to see the
independence which the gardener has shown in placing a fine clump of
rhubarb in one place where he wanted a green bunch. Some persons would
have been afraid of injurious criticism in the use of so common a
plant, but we all know what a vigorous, healthy green it is, and
as such not to be despised by the artist in color. There are a few
specialties in the way of gardening which are worth notice: one is the
array of tulips planted by the city of Haarlem, and representing the
municipal coat-of-arms in tulips of every imaginable color of which
the plant is capable, and around the figures the words "Haarlem,
Holland," in scarlet tulips on a ground of white ones.

Another novelty is the Japanese garden with its bamboo fence, the
posts and door of entrance being carved with remarkable taste and
boldness. The double gates are surmounted by a cock and hen in natural
attitudes, which is a relief from the absurdities of their impossible
storks and hideous griffins. Perhaps it shows that modern and European
ideas are at work there. The flag of Japan, by the way--a red circle
on a white ground--is a sensible design, and can be seen at a
distance: it contrasts favorably with the dragon on a yellow ground of
the Chinese pavilion. The Japanese garden has several large standard
umbrellas for permanent shade, and little bamboo-fenced yards for the
game chickens and the ducks. Two shrines are in the garden, and a
fountain with a feeble jet issuing from a stump and falling into
a little fanciful pond with small bays and promontories. On the
miniature deep a walnut-shell ship might ride, and on the shoals near
the bank aquatic plants are beginning to sprout, and their leaves will
soon touch the opposite shore if they are not attended to.

Rather a disparagement, as a matter of taste, to the somewhat formal
grace but undoubted beauty of this floral scene are the buildings
which are placed here and there over the surface. However, it is these
that we have come to see, for if we were in search of landscape or
Dutch gardening we should find it better elsewhere. This gardening
is only a setting, a frame, in which the various nations have set up
their cottages and villas. The ground surface between the houses has
been laid off ornamentally to please the eye and satisfy the sense
of order and beauty, but is not itself the object of which we are in
s