Japan and the Japanese illustrated . uirrel, and the red-faced brown monkey. All the waysides are bordered with violets, but they are scentless. The countryproduces a very small number of odoriferous plants, and it is remarkable that the lark, OVER-CULTIVATION. 27 the niglitiDgale, and other singing-biids are very rare. Perhaps the hack of perfumeand of song, in the midst of all the wealth of a luxuriant vegetation, helps to diminishthe effect upon the imagination which it seems to me Japanese scenery ought toproduce. It is certain that in contemplating it one doea not experience that senseof
Japan and the Japanese illustrated . uirrel, and the red-faced brown monkey. All the waysides are bordered with violets, but they are scentless. The countryproduces a very small number of odoriferous plants, and it is remarkable that the lark, OVER-CULTIVATION. 27 the niglitiDgale, and other singing-biids are very rare. Perhaps the hack of perfumeand of song, in the midst of all the wealth of a luxuriant vegetation, helps to diminishthe effect upon the imagination which it seems to me Japanese scenery ought toproduce. It is certain that in contemplating it one doea not experience that senseof dreamy exaltation and tenderness which is produced by the sight of a Europeanlandscape in the spring-time, when nature is waking up. Without going into thequestion of the extent to which our sensibility is fed by the remembrances of childhood,and the traditional ideas which find no application in the world of the Far East, Ithink the cooling of our enthusiasm may be accounted for by the fact that, in Japan,nature is I A l; VEST SCENE. With the exception of the forests and other plantations of trees, which theGovernment maintain with praiseworthy care, the entire soil is invaded by cultivationto an extent which almost defies description. Early in April the fields outsidethe woods are covered with buck-wheat in full flower. In four, or five weeks time,on the lower ground, they will be reaping tha barley and wheat sown in Japan they sow corn as we plant potatoes in Europe, in regular, perfectlystraight rows, and between each of these there is an interval of free space inwhich are already sprouting a peculiar species of beans, which will spring up when thefield shall have been reaped. That green surface which might be taken for sproutingcorn is a field of millet, which was sown in March and will be ripe in September. E 2 2S LIFE IN JAPAN. Millet is eaten by the natives in as large quantities as wheat ; they grind it intoflour, and make cakes or po
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