104 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to every other art. The style was naturally formal, nor does it 

 seem so strange that this method should have been adopted, when 

 one considers that picturesque beauty or other poetical associa- 

 tions with natural scenery as an art of imagination, is one of the 

 very last to have been brought toward perfection. 



The second epoch of the art of gardening is from the time of 

 the Roman kings, in the sixth century B. C, till the fall of the 

 empire in the fifth century of our era. Italy furnishes us with the 

 best examples. 



In general it will be found that the Romans copied their 

 gardening indirectly from the Persians, and that gardening, like 

 other arts, extended with civilization from east to west. 



The first garden mentioned in Roman history is that of 

 Tarquinius Superbus, who lived about 534 B. C. This garden 

 adjoined the royal palace at Rome, and abounded with flowers, — 

 chiefly roses, lilies, and poppies. A formal stream of water is 

 the only other feature mentioned. 



The grandest gardens in the century of our Saviour were those 

 of Lucullus, who, influenced by his travels in the East, had con- 

 tracted a taste for its magnificence and pomposity. He had 

 several villas in the different parts of Italy, so that by moving 

 from one to another according to the season he had a very 

 agreeable time the year round. There still remain near Baiffi, in 

 the Bay of Naples, the traces of one of these villas, which, with 

 its terraced gardens, was situated on an elevated, artificial 

 structure, built out into the sea. The palace and gardens were 

 surrounded by sea water, introduced by subterranean passages 

 from without. From the buildings, gardens, and artificial 

 mountains a most extensive panorama was obtained. It is to the 

 folly and extravagance of Lucullus that mankind is indebted for 

 the introduction of the cherry, peach, and apricot from the East. 



Up to the time of Cicero, who died in 43 B. C, an occasional 

 reference had been made to a more natural style of planting than 

 the universal formal method. But Cicero himself combined a 

 variety of natural beauties at his villa. He speaks of groves he 

 had formed there ; of the. natural streams that passed through 

 them from the surrounding hills ; and especially of the absence of 

 all appearance of art, and of all false ornament. Many passages 

 have been left to us by other Roman poets and philosophers, full 

 of the most beautiful descriptions of natural scenery ; but this was 



