PROPHETIC GARDENS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 13949, 4 January 1906, Page 10

PROPHETIC GARDENS.

■—— In Japan there are many beautiful spots known as “prophetic gardens,” where symbolic flowers grow, tho most popular being the tegashwi, or beckoning plant. Shaped something like the fingers of the human ' hand, the loaves of the tegashwi wave to and fro in the breeze, as if to call back the absent ones and presage their safe return. This the plant does, eo the Japanese confidently believe, and one can readily imagine tho devoted wives and mothers of the Island Empire placing the leaf of the tegashwi above the doors of the homes, with many a prayer for the cafe homecoming from tho war of tho soldier to his beloved garden. Many of the plants so carefuly tended have for them each its peculiar portent for good or evil. The fern, is revered by the Japanese as'symbolic ox a large posterity. As its leaf divides and sub-divides into numerous branches, so may the master of the little garden hope to live to see himself surrounded by a large flock of children and grandchildren. At New Year,- a festival ■ much celebrated in Japan, leaves of a kind of laurel; called the vuzuri-ha, are placed with those of the fern above tho door of the house, the fern foretelling a large family, while the yuzuri-ha gives tho added assurance that the father will live until he has seen his eon grow to manhood and able to succeed him in maintaining the family honour. The pine holds cut promise of endurance and success, and also symbolises a sturdy old ago. ■ Tho willow-tree possesses a peculiar power over, toothache. The person attacked by that painful malady sticks a few flue needles into the bark of tho willow by tho stream, with the firm belief that the pain thus caused to the spirit of tho tree will .induce that spirit to ease tiro sufferings of the invalid, and’ insure the withdrawal from the- +-vee of th~ irritating needles.

The nanten or lucky shrub, has the power of preventing evil dreams from coming true. Little Japanese maids are especially impressed with the potency of this plant. They have but to steal down tho garden path to- the nanten bush, whisper the dream to its shining leaves and bright red berries, and lo! the power of the dream is broken. Japanese women have a peculiar fondness for the cherry blossom, and it is seen in decorations almost more than any other flower. To say that a Japanese girl rivals tho beauty of the cherry blossom is the limit of comparison in female beauty.