6 



The Persian empire had extended from the Indus 

 to the Archipelago, when the Paradise of Sardis ex- 

 cited the astonishment of the Spartan General, and 

 Cyrus mustered the Grecian auxiliaries in the garden 

 of Celfense. 



The Greeks had repulsed the formidable invasions 

 of Darius and Xerxes, and Athens had reached the 

 culminating point of her exaltation, when the accom- 

 plished and gallant Cimon established the Academus, 

 and presented it to his fellow-citizens, as a public 

 garden. Numerous others were soon planted and 

 decorated Avith temples, porticos, altars, statues, and 

 triumphal monuments ; — but this was during the 

 polished age of Pericles ; — when Socrates and Plato 

 taught their sublime philosophy, in the sacred groves ; 

 — when the theatres were thronged to listen to the 

 enrapturing poetry of Euripides and Aristophanes ; — 

 when the genius of Phidias was displayed in the con- 

 struction of the incomparable Parthenon, and sculp- 

 turing the statues of the gods ; — when eloquence 

 and painting had reached perfection, and history was 

 taught by Herodotus, Thucydides. and Xenophon. 



Imperial Rome had subjugated the w^orld, and 

 emulated Greece in literatui'e, science, and the arts, 

 when the superb villas of Sallust, Crassus, Pompey, 

 Caesar, Mecasnas, and Agrippina were established, 

 and the palaces of the Emperors were environed by 

 magnificent gardens. 



The history of modern nations presents similar re- 

 sults. Horticulture had lingered in the rear of other 

 pursuits, until the commencement of the eighteenth 

 century, when it began to claim the attention of some 



