Sir William {Temple 97 



of celery is one ; cucumis, which takes in all 

 sorts of melons, as well as cucumbers ; olus, 

 which is a common word for all sorts of pot- 

 herbs and legumes ; verbenas, which signifies 

 all kinds of sweet or sacred plants, that 

 were used for adorning the altars, as bays, 

 olive, rosemary, myrtle ; the acanthus seems 

 to be what we called pericanthe ; but what their 

 hederce were, that deserved place in a garden, I 

 cannot guess, unless they had sorts of ivy un- 

 known to us ; nor what his vescum papaver was, 

 since poppies with us are of no use in eat- 

 ing. 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 platanus, 

 or plane-tree, whose leaf and shade of all others 

 was the most in request ; and, having been 

 brought out of Persia, was such an inclination 

 among the Greeks and Romans, that they usual- 

 ly fed it with wine instead of water ; they be- 

 lieved this tree loved that liquor, as well as 

 those that used to drink under its shade, which 

 was a great humor and custom, and perhaps 

 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. 



