HISTORY AND SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 109 



The first part, the History of Gardening, is sub-divided into 

 three sections, viz. : the Ages of Antiquity, commencing with the 

 earliest accounts and terminating with the foundation of the Roman 

 Empire ; the Ancient Ages, from the rise of the Roman Empire to 

 its fall ; and Modern Times, from the close of the second period 

 to the present day. 



In the first of these periods we have the Garden of Eden, and 

 the other gardens mentioned in Scripture, especially those of 

 Solomon, many of the plants in the last being specified. The 

 gardens of the Assyrians and Persians were famous for their 

 romantic and picturesque situations. Persia is the native place 

 of most of our acclimated fruits, and its gardens were filled with 

 fragrant flowers and cooling fruits, which have also been known 

 in Egypt from time immemorial. 



The Greeks copied their gardening, as well as their architecture, 

 from the Persians ; yet the former art did not make such rapid 

 progress in Greece as the latter. Hence the remark of Lord 

 Bacon in his essay on gardens, " That when ages grow up to 

 civility and elegancy, men come to build stately sooner than to 

 garden finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection." 



In the second period, the Romans seemed to have gathered the 

 art of gardening from the Greeks, as the latter did from the 

 Persians ; or, more probably, it travelled west with the current 

 of civilization. The first garden mentioned in Roman history- 

 is that of Tarquinius Superbus. The next, that of Lucullus, was 

 so grand and splendid that it rivalled those of the eastern monarchs. 

 We have the most particular descriptions of the gardens of Pliny, 

 which have been considered as giving the whole taste and style to 

 European gardens up to the seventeenth century. This accom- 

 plished nobleman and philosopher possessed two villas, that of 

 Laurentinum, a winter retreat near Rome, and the Tuscan villa 

 in the Appenines. The gardens of these villas are said to have 

 borne a striking resemblance to the modern Dutch and French 

 styles ; they had even their little flower gardens, bordered round 

 with box and trees cut in curious shapes, and great attention seems 

 to have been given to their formation and care. It is astonishing 

 that, in an age when architecture displayed all its grandeur, a ' 

 Roman consul, a polished friend of emperors, and a man of 

 elegant literature, delighted in what would now scarcely be 

 admir-ed in a cottage garden. 



