BOOKOFOLD-WORLDGARDENS 



Gardens planted the third day of the creation, as wiser 

 before Divinity concludeth, the nativity thereof was too 

 gardeners early for horoscopy: gardens were before gar- 

 deners, and but some hours after the earth. 



Of deeper doubt is its topography and local 

 designation; yet being the primitive garden, 

 and without much controversy seated in the 

 east, it is more than probable the first curiosity, 

 and cultivation of plants, most flourished in 

 those quarters. And since the ark of Noah first 

 touched upon some mountains of Armenia, the 

 planting art arose again in the east, and found 

 itsrevolution not far from the place of its nativ- 

 ity about the plains of those regions. And if 

 Zoroaster were either Cham, Chus,orMizraim, 

 they were early proficients therein, who left, as 

 Pliny delivereth, a work of Agriculture. 



However, theaccount of thepensile or hang- 

 ing gardens of Babylon, if made bySemiramis, 

 the third or fourth from Nimrod, is of no slender 

 antiquity; which being not framed upon ordin- 

 ary level of ground, but raised upon pillars, ad- 

 mitting under-passages, we cannot accept as the 

 first Babylonian gardens, but a more eminent 

 progress and advancement in that art than any 

 that wentbefore it; somewhat answering or hint- 



