s m m m m r n M
m m m i ^
“ X X S browsing o f a goat gave
X V T a X X o f the art o f grafting has hoen veiy unsatisfactorily accounted for by
|S i i ? 3 g s S i p i |
mM™ been knoscvn mto the Persiamns, or to the iGmredcs, m tbe Mtime of Ho“ Cri oi Hnesiod
nor aeeordino- to Chardin, was it known to the Persians m his day. Grafting was not
infer from a passage in Manlius, and one in Democritus, that grafting may have been
a e Z e e o I d X a X X o ^
“ l l t o c f o T t h e Ilm ii: Z e Z t f o iX X - d '^ o r his priests ; and it is not till toe
Iftii Z - X it may he eaten hy the planter Tins must have
fn ih i Strenrtli of the plants, and their ostabhfihment m the soil. The fiuit trees m tne
i Z l n f r f Id e in oZ ™ pianted in quinennx; there were hedges for shelter and security
and the pot-herbs and flowers were planted in beds ; and the ' T 4 i™ ™ to
as to he irrigated. Melons in Persia were manm-ed ivith pigeons dung, as * « 7 1
this day in that country. After being sown, the melon tribe produce a hulk of food
sooner than any other p la n t; hence the value of this plant in seasons of scarcity. The
bulbs o fth e Omithogalum umbellatum, the common “™ ® . V ' 4 tw ¥ lm h i l the
dune appear to hav? been cultivated for food ; as we read m holy wnt, that dimng the
t o to Slmaria (2 Kings, vi. 25.), a cab, not quite three pints of corn measure, cost
s/iffl o / the Greeks appears, from their writers on geopomcs to
have been considerable. It seems that both ringing and graftmg were practised by them,
and the fertilisation of the fig tree was effected by the well-known practice of caprification.
Anatolius and Sotion direct, that when an apple tree is required to bear a
larger crop than nsnal, a hgature should he bound tight round the stem. Democritus
says that some flg growers insert (that is, graft) a shoot of the wild flg on every tree of
cultivated flg, in order to save the trouble of annual caprification. Of the importance
of manure they wore well aware, and even of sowing green crops to be buried in the soil
for that purpose.
42. 7'he passages o f tlie Greek writers which relate to gardens o f taste have been amplv
iUustratod by the learned German antiqum-ian Bættinger {Racemazionen zur Oartenkunk
der Alten) -, of which it may be remai-kcd, that the qualities chiefly enlarged on are, shade,
coolness, freshness, breezes, fragi-aiieo, and repose, — effects of gardening which are felt
and rellshed at an earlier period of human civilisation than picturesque beauty, or other
poetical and comparatively artificial associations with external scenery; for though
gardening as a merely useful art may claim priority to eveiy other, yet as an art of
imagmation, it is one of the last which has been brought to perfection. In fact, its
existence as such an art depends on the previous existence of pastoral poetry and mental
cultivation ; for what ai'e the beauties of nature to an uncultivated mind ?
43. The gardening authors o f the ages o f antiquity ai'C few, and of these little is known.
Hesiod is the most ancient ; he appears to have been contemporary with Homer, and a
Boeotian. His poem entitled Wo>7is and Days is the only one of his productions which
remains ; but he is said to have written a Treatise on Grafting, and also treatises on the
Culture o f the Vine, o f Corn, and o f Herbs. Incidental remarks on even the higher
departments of gardening will be found in the writings of Homer, Herodotus, Xenophon,
Aristotle, and Theophi-astns. The History of Plants hy the latter author is a work of
great merit for the age in which it was produced. — See Hncy. o f Agr., § 24.
ClIAP. II.
-----------------. „M the Time o f the Roman Kings, in the Sixth Century
dine and Fall o f the Empire in the F ifth Century g fo u r Era.
44. Gardening among the Romans we shall consider, 1. As an art of design and taste :
2. In respect to the culture of flowers and plants of ornament ; 3. As to its products
for the kitchen and the dessert ; 4. As to the propagation of timber trees and hedges :
and 5. As a science, and as to the authors it has produced. In general it will he found
that the Romans copied their gai-dening from the Greeks, as the latter did theirs from
the Persians, and that gardening, like every other art, extended with civilisation fi-om
east to west.
Sect. I. Roman Gardening, as an A r t o f Design and Taste.
45. Tlw firs t mention o f a garden in the Roman history is that of Tarquinins Superbus,
B. c. 534, by Livy and Dionysius of Halicai-nassus. Fi-om what they state, it can
only be gathered, that this garden was adjoining to the royal palace, in the city of Rome ;
and that it abounded with flowers, chiefly roses, lilies, and poppies, in beds, and was supplied
with a stream of water. The next in the order of time are the gardens of Luciillus,
situated on the promontory of Misenum, near Baim, in the Bay of Naples. They
were of a magnificence and expense rivalling those of the eastern monai-chs ; and
procured to this general the epithet of the Roman Xerxes. They consisted of vast
edifices projecting into the sea ; of immense artificial elevations ; of plains foi-med where
mountains formerly stood; and of vast pieces of water, which it was the fasliion of that
time to dignily with the pompous titles of N ilm and Buripus. Plutai-ch informs ns that
the palace aud terraced gardens were surrounded by sea water, which was introduced
through snhterrauean passages, communioating with the sea. From the buildings and
the artificial moimtains, the most extensive prospects were obtained, both inland and
marine. Phmdrus mentions the island of Sicily on the one hand, and the Tuscan
Sea, now the Bay of Leghorn, on the other, as seen from the highest mount. Lucullus
had made several expeditions to the eastern part of Asia, and it is probable he had
there contracted a taste for this sort of magnificence. Varrò ridicules these works for
their amazing sumptnosity ; and Cicero makes his friend Atticus hold cheap those
magnificent waters, in comparison with the natural stream of the river Khrenus, where
a small island accidentally divided it. {De Legibus, lib. ii.) Lncullus is said to have
had many other villas in different parts of Italy, so that by changing from one to the
other, which he used to boast of doing “ with the storks and cranes,” he enjoyed an
agreeable climate every month in the yeai'. Amidst so much folly and extrayagance,