The bamboo, with its tender shoots, graceful stalks, and feathery foliage, is a favorite subject for pen and pencil.  A rugged pine, which is sometimes dwarfed and grown in flower-pots, is another capital study for the draughtsman, and a combination of these two species of arboreal growth forms the title-page and frontispiece of one of the popular picture-books of Japan.  This design, which we have borrowed for a frontispiece to this paper, fairly shows the lightness and grace which the native artist brings to his work, even when the product of his skill is not for the delectation of connoisseurs in high art, but for the fly-leaf of an humble book of drawings for "the million." 1

1     Brooks, Noah  "Some Pictures from Japan" in Scribners monthly, an illustrated magazine for the people,Volume 11, Issue 2, December 1875, pg. 189.  Graphic from pg. 177 with pseudo-Japanese cursive letters.