8 



It is not proposed to offer a treatise on landscape gardening, but 

 rather to allude briefly to some of the more prominent points and sub- 

 jects that will naturally arise for consideration in the location of resi- 

 dences and public buildings, and in the arrangement of the principal 

 accessories and the execution of various details connected with rural 

 improvements. 



GARDENING AND CIVILIZATION. 



Gardens are of the most remote antiquity. Our first parents were 

 placed in a garden, and the writings of the oldest historians and poets 

 contain various descriptions and traditions concerning the extraordi- 

 nary beauty of the gardens. History proves that a taste for gardening 

 has kept pace with the progress of civilization, and that it has always 

 exerted a powerful influence upon the passions and feelings of mankind. 

 Much of the decorative beauty of architecture has resulted from study 

 of the combinations and graceful lines of the vegetable kingdom. Two 

 thousand years before the Christian era Lydia was famed for its gar- 

 dens. The gardens of Babylon are traditionally ranked among the 

 greatest successful combinations of skill and wealth. The Persian 

 kings were very partial to gardens, which were cultivated as much for 

 their beauty as for their fruit, and even in gardens of limited extent 

 the trees were arranged in regular lines and figures, and the walks bor- 

 dered with tufts of roses, violets, and other odoriferous plants. The 

 Greeks copied from the Persians, both in their gardening and their 

 architecture. Epicurus took great delight in his garden, and there 

 taught his philosophy. The Greeks excelled in architecture more than 

 in gardening, although a public park or garden was planted by Cimon, 

 the general, at Athens, furnished with streams of water and supplied 

 with shady groves, with gymnasia and places for exercise. They had 

 flower markets which were well patronized, and learned or distinguished 

 men wore crowns of flowers, and successful warriors were decorated 

 with wreaths and garlands. Their garden decorations partook largely 

 of statuary and other architectural appendages. 



The Romans devoted much of their wealth to the adornment of their 

 gardens and pleasure parks. Lucullus seems to have had large ideas 

 of magnificent expenditures in this direction, being represented as hav- 

 ing sumptuous villas in different parts of Italy, so that he could enjoy an 

 agreeable climate every month in the year. Cicero had fine plantations 

 at his Arpinum villa. Sallust, who made a fortune in the government 

 of Numidia, devoted largely of his means to the laying out of gardens 

 which were for a long period the pride of Koine. Pliny's villa appears 

 to have been laid out with more taste and less of ostentations display 

 than some others, since the pastoral beauty of his grounds is highly 

 praised. It is apparent, however, that the principal features of orna- 

 mentation were derived from vases, fountains, and similar works of art 

 that bore the resemblance of wealth, and were at once objects that con- 



