and various herbs were its products. The Vine was there in 

 re"-ular rows ; the whole watered by two fountains, and sur- 

 rounded by a hedge. 



That vegetables and their cultivation were highly esteemed 

 amono- the Grecians in their earliest days is evident from their 

 Mythology. Minerva, their personification of Divine Wisdom, 

 gave as the greatest blessing to mankind, the Olive Tree, and 

 this fable is as old as the foundation of Athens, or about 

 1550 years B. C. ; whilst Ceres, the sister of their King of 

 Heaven, was invoked as the presiding Deity of Agriculture, 

 and the original imparter of the Art to mankind. It may 

 serve as an illustration of the same remark, to observe that 

 almost every Deity had some plant held as sacred to him or 

 her. The Oak was sacred to Jupiter : The Cypress, Narcis- 

 sus, and the Maidenhair to Pluto; The Dittany, the Poppy 

 and the Lilly to Juno : The Poppy to Ceres : The Olive to 

 Minerva : Dog's Grass to Minerva : The Myrtle, Rose and 

 Apple to Venus, &c. It is worthy of notice that the most 

 admired human favourites of the God's were changed after 

 death, or to avoid calamities, into Trees, or Flowers. Many 

 other fables of their Mythology are poetical and beautiful. 

 Flowers in general, they declared, sprang from the tears of 

 Aurora. The tremblings of every leaf, the graceful waving of 

 the grass, was attributed to the passing breath of Zcphyrus ; 

 as the curl of the Waters was said to arise from the sports of 

 theNaiads. I pass without description the Gardens of the 

 Hesperides,* and of Adonis,t for poetical fiction must give 

 place to more sober facts. 



We are without very clear information of the skill of the 

 Greeks in cultivating their Gardens, or of their taste in 

 disposing them, even during the splendour of their Republics. 



The Academus at Athens, which was laid out by Cimon the 



* Virgils ^neid. iv. 484- Serv.ad. /Eneid. Eccl. vi. CI. Pliny 1. v. c. 5. 

 + Virg. Gcorg. ii. 87. Ovid. Amor. i. 10. 56. Slat. Sylv. i. 3. 81. 



