62 [Assembly 



den finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection." All writers 

 agree in putting the fig at the head of fruit trees first cultivated, and 

 the vine as next in order. The use of flowers for preternatural, reli- 

 gious, funeral, and medical purposes, like every other use, is of the 

 remotest antiquity. Bundles of flowers covered the tables of the 

 Greeks, and were worn during repasts, because the plants of which 

 ihey consisted were supposed to possess the virtue of preserving the 

 wearer from the fumes of wine, of refreshing the thinking faculty, 

 imparting purity to the ideas, and promoting a disposition to cheer- 

 fulness. Tlie first implement used in cultivating the soil, all antiqua- 

 rians agree, must have been of the pick kind. In ihe beginning of 

 the sixteenth century, the gardens of Peru had no other spade than a 

 pointed slick. The Chinese implement bears the marks of the high- 

 est civilization, since it has a hilt or cross handle, and a tread for the 

 foot, and consequently supposes the use of sandals by the operator. 

 It is said that the browsing of a goat gave the first idea of pruning 

 the vine, as chance, which had set fire to a rose tree, gave the first of 

 pruning the rose. The origin of the art of grafting as yet remains a 

 secret. It does not appear to have been known to the Persians or to 

 the Greeks in the time of Homer or Hesiod, and was communicated 

 to the natives of Peru and South America by the Spaniards. Ac- 

 cording to some authorities, that singular people, the Chinese, were 

 for many centuries back acquainted with the best methods of Euro- 

 pean agriculture, and conferred high honors on successful cultivators, 

 the tilling of tiie earth being considered the first of duties : even the 

 monarch of the " Celestial Empire " 



" Lays his sceptre down, 

 " Nor deems the task unworthy of the crown." 



Moses gave useful directions to his people on the culture of the 

 vine and the olive. " For the first three years, they are not allowed 

 to ripen any fruit." This contributed materially to the strength of the 

 plants, and their establishment in the soil. The horticultural skill of 

 the Greeks appears from their writers on geoponics to have been con- 

 siderable. It seems that both ringing and grafting were practised by 

 them ; an ihe fertilization of the fig tree was effected by the well 

 known practice of caprificaiion. Anatolius and Sotion direct, that 

 when and apple tree is required to bear a larger crop than usual, a 

 ligature should be bound tight round the stem. Of the importance of 



