GARDENS OF THE ANCIENTS 



legumes; Verbenas \ which signifies all kinds of Gardens 

 sweet or sacred plants that were used for adorn- 

 ing the altars; as bays, olive, rosemary, myrtle: 

 the Acanthus seems to bewhatwecall Perican- 

 the\ but what their Hedera were, that deserved 

 place in a garden, I cannot guess, unless they 

 had sorts of ivy unknown to us ; nor what his 

 Vescum Pop aver was, since poppies with us are 

 of no use in eating. The fruits mentioned, are 

 only apples, pears, and plums; for olives, vines 

 and figs, were grown to be fruits of their fields, 

 rather than of their gardens. The shades were 

 the elm, the pine, the lime-tree, and the Plata- 

 nus, or plane-tree; whose leaf and shade, of all 

 others, was the most in request; and having 

 been brought out of Persia, was suchaninclin- 

 ation among the Greeks and the Romans, that 

 they usually fed it with wine instead of water; 

 they believed this tree loved that liquor, as well 

 as those that used to drink under its shade; 

 which was a great humour and custom, and per- 

 haps gave rise to the other, by observing the 

 growth of the tree, or largeness of the leaves, 

 where much wine was spilt or left, and thrown 

 upon the roots. 



'Tis great pity the haste which Virgil seems 

 93 



