14 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1883. 



Grapes " which it will require two to " bear upon a staff," bring- 

 ing also " ponaegranates and figs." 



It is possible, with exceeding credulity, to believe that Archi- 

 tecture may be " frozen music." Yet, as among the devotees of 

 the tuneful muse, harmony is usuall}' the one thing lacking, — so 

 it is evident that the mere process of congelation could not give 

 it birth. '"''Ex nihilo, nihil fit ^ Hence the discords that every- 

 where arrest attention are not surprising: startling us, by the 

 apparition, in the same narrow landscape, of formations after 

 the Springfield mania; the " Queen Anne" conceit ; the Gothic 

 savagery ; .or the delicate Grecian fancy. Built to lease, or to 

 sell, they may last throughout our brief period : and is not the 

 true philosophy, — Apres moi, le deluge ! Thus built, — as it were 

 for a shelter-tent ; why should the occupant care for those 

 adornments wherewith he might otherwise surround himself, but 

 that are wholly unsuited to the card-" house that Jack built." 

 By and by, — as population increases, and settlement closes in 

 upon itself; the enjoyment of even the smallest space of ground 

 becomes impossible: and they who would fain cherish some 

 favorite flower, or fruit, are reduced to the closest straits. 

 Whether a remedy for such wants is practicable ; whether it 

 shall be provided under a more thorough method of construction, 

 in this our own day and generation ; may involve a waste of time 

 to consider. But, that " they do these things better in France," 

 has been an accepted proverb for many long years. And how 

 they are done, in at least one instance, I translate, for your in- 

 formation and enjoyment, from the Revue Horticole : — 



" There are few persons who have never heard mention of the 

 famed Hanging Gardens, of Babylon, attributed to Serairamis : or who 

 have never read the marvellous account of them handed down by 

 tradition. 



" Savants, — simple scholars even, have doubted if it were possible 

 to create those gardens. That they are wrong, we may well believe ; 

 for where is the impossibility, when one can dispose of all power ; and 

 the forces and resources of an entire People are controlled by a single 

 will ? Setting aside exaggeration, — it is permitted us to believe that 

 such gardens once existed. Besides, — who has not known examples, — 

 at least upon a small scale ? 



"What are these terraces? — these balconies that are in sight, every- 

 where? whereon flowering plants are grown, if not hanging gardens 



