THE GARDEN OF CYRUS 99 



those of Constantine and his sons, which pretend their 

 pattern in the sky ; the crucigerous ensign carried this 

 figure, not transversely or rectangularly intersected, but 

 in a decussation, after the form of an Andrean or 

 Burgundian cross, which answereth this description. 



Of this quincuncial ordination the ancients practised 

 much, discoursed little ; and the moderns have nothing 

 enlarged ; which he that more nearly considereth, in 

 the form of its square rhombus, and decussation, with 

 the several commodities, mysteries, parallelisms, and 

 resemblances, both in art and nature, shall easily discern 

 the elegancy of this order. 



That this was in some ways of practice in divers and 

 distant nations, hints or deliveries there are from no 

 slender antiquity. In the hanging gardens of Babylon, 

 from Abydenus, Eusebius, and others, Curtius de- 

 scribeth this rule of decussation. 1 In the memorable 

 garden of Alcinous, anciently conceived an original 

 fancy from Paradise, mention there is of well-contrived 

 order ; for so hath Didymus and Eustachius expounded 

 the emphatical word. Diomedes, describing the rural 

 possessions of his father, gives account in the same 



1 Decussatio ipsa jucundum ac peramoenum conspectum 

 prsebuit. Di Hortis, lib. 6. 



