THE POETKY OF GARDENING. 97 



their writings that they were votaries of Flora. The 

 difficulty is in identifying the ancient names with modern 

 specimens, and thus the " violet - crowned " Athenians 

 become as great a mystery to us as the chaplet of " parsley" 

 for the victor at the Olympic games. I am inclined to think 

 that the Greeks understood the poetry of flowers better 

 than the Romans, or how could the latter have endured the 

 licentiousness of the Floralia, and made, oh shame! the 

 obscene Priapus the protecting deity of their gardens ? 

 Perhaps no greater instance could be alleged of the de- 

 pravity of human nature, when given up to the debasing 

 influences of a god-multiplying superstition, than that " the 

 purest of all human pleasures " was made the occasion of 

 their most infamous rites, and that " the lilies of the field," 

 the emblem of simplicity to man, were committed to the 

 tutelage of the god of lust ! 



The formal style which the ancients adopted in their 

 pleasure-grounds as Cicero at his Tusculan villa was 

 perhaps better suited to the introduction of fruit-trees than 

 our more modern system. The very order of their vines, 

 which Virgil compares to the rank and file of a Roman 

 legion, and of their olives, which were under the eye of 

 Morian Jove himself, while they afforded them avenues for 

 shade, were also conducive to the best development of the 

 virtues of the tree. So also, in the Elizabethan and Dutch 

 styles, the espaliers harmonized better with the pleach- 

 work of the rest of the garden than they could be made 

 to do in the Natural style. But still, those who have 

 seen the hanging orchards of Lanark, 



" Clydesdale's apple-bowers," 



in the end of the merry month of May, or the tamer 

 beauties of the cider counties of England, may well regret 



