504 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



merit, and in the place of barren hillsides, and implanted val- 

 leys, orchards, bending beneath their heavy crops, may glad- 

 den the eye of the thrifty farmer, and supply the wants of 

 our populous cities with the healthiest fruits. 



RUINS. 



BY WILSON FLAGG. 



To all whose minds have received an ordinary amount of 

 cultivation, there are few objects more interesting than the 

 remains of antiquity, — whether, like those of Greece and 

 Rome, they call up the history of noblest works of art and 

 deeds of renown, or like those of Egypt, they carry back the 

 mind to the age of primeval superstition, or like the ruins of 

 the earth itself, they read the story of the antediluvian periods 

 before the present races of animals were created. In our own 

 country where these relics of ancient times, excepting those 

 of a geological description, are almost unknown, the people 

 in general can hardly sympathize with that love of ruins 

 which is almost a passion with some of the inhabitants of the 

 Old World. We have no ruined castles to remind us of 

 ancient baronial splendor, and of the perils and heroism of 

 the feudal ages ; no remains of gorgeous temples or trium- 

 phal arches to record the deeds of a past generation. The 

 ancient history of this continent lives chiefly in tradition ; 

 and the traveller, who happens to discover one of those few 

 relics of ancient American architecture, seeks in vain for any 

 record that will explain its character or design. 



Yet the absence of the ruins of antiquity may have a ten- 

 dency to render our people more alive to impressions from 

 those of a more humble description and of recent origin 

 which abound in all places. When strolling over the scenes 

 of our own land, who has not often stopped to ponder over the 

 ruins of some old dwelling-house, and to bring before the 

 mind the possible history of its inmates ? Here we perceive 

 the completion of a domestic romance. A series of adven- 



