Yew-trees, cut into fantastic shapes, and dwarfed trees, extending their deformed arms as if for assistance and support, are favourite garden ornaments [in Japan].  (Vol. II, pg. 165)

        The botanical gardens themselves did not exactly correspond to our notions on the subject.  There were neither fine old trees in great variety, nor a large and curious collection of all descriptions of plants.  The rage of horticulturists in this country seemed to be grasses, mosses, and ferns of all sorts, added to which there was an extensive assortment of dwarfed trees.  Instead of glass greenhouses, there were long mat-sheds for the more delicate specimens; while ranged upon stands, as in England, were quantities of porcelain pots of various shapes and colours, but generally blue, with a piece of rock in the centre, and a root of grass or moss growing round it.  But a Japanese gardener chiefly prides himself upon his skill in dwarfing.  The most venerable forest-trees may here be seen in flower-pots, their old stems, gnarled and twisted as if writhing under the torture of distortion [sic], perhaps scarce two feet high, while their unnatural branches spread out laterally like the fingers of a deformed hand.  One of the Dutch Factory told a story of a box three inches long by two broad, containing a fir-tree, a bamboo, and a plum-tree in full blossom, which was sold for a sum equal to twelve hundred dollars.   (Vol. II, pg. 173)  2 

1       From the Preface to the Narrative (see below), pp. v and vi; James Trager  The People's Chronology (New York: Henry Holt and Company, revised 1994 edition), pp. 469, 475; Sir Harry Smith Parkes, ttp://www.1911encyclopedia.org/P/PA/PARKES_SIR_HARRY_SMITH.htm.

2       Oliphant, Laurence   Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857, 1858 and 1859  (New York: Augustus M. Kelley, Publishers; 1969.  First edition 1859 by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh & London).  For additional background on Elgin, see John Newsinger's "Elgin in China" article in New Left Review, 15, May-June 2002, pp. 119-140. 

        The Project Gutenberg E-Book of  Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin, Governor of Jamaica, Governor-General of Canada, Envoy to China, Viceroy of India, edited by Theodore Walrond, C.B. (1872) contains two additional references:

         March 21, 1858 -- [Chusan, off of China and near Hong Kong,] is a most charming island.  [We stopped outside of the town of Tinghae.]  After he had given us tea, the missionary accompanied us in our walk.  He first took us to a sort of cottage-villa, belonging to one of the rich inhabitants, consisting of about a couple of acres of ground, covered by kiosks and grottos and dwarf-trees, and ups and downs and zigzags,--all in the most approved Chinese fashion.  (Chapter VIII)

          August 22, 1859 -- Beyond [Yeddo, the capital of Japan], we got into the country, consisting at first of a sort of long street of quaint cottages with thatched or tiled roofs, embosomed in gardens, and interspersed with avenues conducting to temples.  Further on were cultivated fields, with luxuriant crops of great variety: rice, sweet potato, egg-plant, peas, millet, yams, taro, melons, &c. &c.  At last, we reached a place of refreshment, consisting of a number of kiosques, on the bank of a stream, with a waterfall hard by, and gardens with rock-work (not _mesquin,_ as in China, but really pretty and in good taste) opposite.  Here we had luncheon.  Fruits, and a kind of Julienne soup; not bad, but rather _maigre,_ served to us by charming young ladies, who presented on their knees the trays with the little dishes upon them.  The repast finished, we set out on our return (for we had overshot our mark), and visited the gardens, which were the object of our expedition.  They had the appearance of nursery gardens, with rows of pots containing dwarf-trees and all manner of quaint products; all this, moreover, in a prettily _accidenté_ country, abounding in forest trees and luxuriant undergrowth.  (Chapter X)