96 THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



ously his spirit would have revelled among "the rose- 

 gardens of Paestum." 



It cannot be out of place here to insert part of that de- 

 scription I have just alluded to, unsurpassed as it is by 

 ancient or modern poetry. 



" Sub (Ebaliae memini me turribus arcis, 



Qua niger humectat flaventia culta Galsesus, 

 Corycium vidisse senem, cui pauca relicti 

 Jugera ruris erant : nee fertilis ilia juvencis 

 Nee pecori opportuna seges, nee commoda Baecho. 

 Hie rarum tamen in dumis olus albaque circum 

 Lilia verbenasque premens, vescumque papaver, 

 Regum aequabat opes animls : seraque revertens 

 Nocte domum dapibus mensas onerabat inemptis. 

 Primus vere rosam, atque auctumno carpere poma ; 

 Et, quum tristis hyems etiarn nunc frigore saxa 

 Rumperet, et glacie cursus frenaret aquarum, 

 Ille comam mollis jam tondebat hyacinthi, 

 /Estatem increpitans seram zephyrosque morantes." 



Georg., iv. 125. 



Most writers on gardening have treated of the Grecian and 

 Roman gardens as if they were simply orchards. They 

 were in fact, what we may hope to restore, a mixture of 

 fruit and flowers. That they loved flowers for their own 

 sake might be witnessed by numberless passages from 

 Aristophanes* and Ovid, both of whom clearly show by 



* Passim, and especially the choruses in the 'Aves/ We learn, 

 too, from him, that there was a flower-market at Athens. For Ovid, 

 see, among many others, the charming description of the aymphs " in 

 the fair field of Enna gathering flowers :" 



" Hsec implet lento calathos e vimine textos : 

 Hsec gremium, laxos degravat ilia sinus. 

 Ilia legit calthas : huic sunt violaria curse : 

 i Ilia papavereas subsecat ungue comas. 



Has, hyacinthe. tenes : illas, amaranthe, moraris : 



Pars thyma, pars casiam, pars meliloton amant. 



Plurima lecta rosa est, et sunt sine nomine flores : 



Ipsa crocos tenues liliaque alba legit." 



Let me add one other picture of a Flower-girl the matchless Murillo 

 in the Dulwich Gallery. 



