364 On the Flower-Gardens of the Ancients. 



Art. III. On the Flower- Gardens of the Ancients. By James 

 Macauley, Esq. M.A. 



It is always asserted by modern writers on gardening, that 

 the ancients did not cultivate flowers as a source of amuse- 

 ment. In the descriptions, it is said, of all the most famous 

 gardens of antiquity which have come down to us, we read 

 merely of their fruits and their shade ; and when flowers are 

 mentioned, they are always reared for some special purpose, 

 such as to supply their feasts, or their votive offerings. 



Considered merely as a useful art, gardening must be one 

 of the earliest cultivated, but as a refined source of pleasure, 

 it is always one of the latest. It is not till civilization and 

 elegance are far advanced among a people, that they can en- 

 joy the poetry or the pleasure of the artificial associations of 

 nature. Hence this question is interesting, as illustrating the 

 manners and the tastes of the times referred to. 



Negative proofs are not sufficient to determine the point. 

 To show that the gardens of the Hesperides contained nothing 

 but oranges, or that of King Alcinous, (Odyss. vii.), nothing 

 but a few fruit-trees and pot-herbs, does not disprove the o- 

 pinion that others cultivated flowers as a source of pleasure. 



Before speaking of the Roman flower-gardens, I would of- 

 fer a few remarks on those of Greece and the east. 



From the little mutability of oriental customs, their ancient 

 gardening did not probably differ much from that of modern 

 times. The descriptions given by Maundrell, Russell, and o- 

 ther travellers, agree with what we read in the Scriptures of 

 the Hebrew gardens three thousand years ago. 



Solomon, who had so extensive a knowledge of the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom, that he knew plants from the cedar of Lebanon 

 to the moss on the wall, enumerates gardening among the 

 pleasures he had tasted in his search after happiness. — " I 

 made me great works ; I builded me houses ; I planted me 

 vineyards ; I made me gardens and orchards." — Eccles. ii. 14. 



From Xenophon and other writers we have a few notices 

 of the Persian gardens. Xenophon relates that Cyrus was 

 much devoted to the pleasures of gardening, and wherever he 

 resided, or whatever part of his dominions he visited, he took 

 care that the gardens should be filled with everything both 

 beautiful and useful, which the soil could produce. These 

 Ilaga&io-oi were sometimes only hunting parks, or enclosed fo- 

 rests, but there were also flower-gardens among them. Ci- 

 cero ('De Senectute') relates the following anecdote of Cyrus. 

 When Lysander the Spartan came to him with presents, to 

 Sardis, Cyrus showed him all his treasures and his gardens. 

 And when Lysander was struck with the height of the trees, 



