266 



GARDEN CRAFT IN EUROPE 



ported a date tree from Syria and planted it in a part of the gardens 

 which he laid out in imitation of those of his grandfather at Damascus, 

 where he had been brought up as a child. So skilful were the Sultan's 

 gardeners that these foreign importations were speedily naturalized and 

 spread from the palace throughout the land. The pomegranate, the em- 

 blem of Andalusia, 

 was among the fruits 

 introduced at this 

 time by means of a 

 tree brought from 

 Damascus. 



Ebn-el-Avram, in 

 his works on agricul- 

 ture, gives the names 

 of several renowned 

 gardeners, and we read 

 of the horticultural 

 fame of Abu Zacharias, 

 and Abu-el-Thair of 

 Seville, of El-Hadj 

 who flourished at 

 Granada, and Abu- 

 Xacer, who was fam- 

 ous for his profound 

 knowledge of flowers. 

 The work of El-Avram 

 has been translated 

 into Spanish,^ and 

 amongst much con- 

 cerning the growth of 

 plants contains some curious details on the culture of roses. 



Cordova, says an old Arab writer, is the bride of Andalusia, and in 

 the days of its greatest prosperity it must have been a capital to be proud 

 of. The fairy palace of Abd-er-Rahman III, in the neighbourhood of 

 Cordova, possessed beautiful gardens, abounding in jets of sparkling 



^ Josef Antonio Banqueri, Libra de agricoltura traducido for Don J. A. B. 1802, fol. 



THE GENERALIFE, GRANADA. 



