DIVISION X. 



THE PEACTICE OF HOETICULTUEE 



CHAPTER I. 



THE GARDEN OF EDEN ; THE GARDENS OF EESPERIDES ; THE OAilOEN OF ALCINOX-^S ; THE GARDSSS 

 OF CYRUS • GARDENS OF THE EAST GENERALLY ; GRECrAN GARDENS ; ROMAN GARDENS ; VEGETABLH 

 GARDENS. 



THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 



The cultivation of a garden, as it is one of 

 the most innocent, so must it have been one 

 of the first of the employiiieuts of man. Ac- 

 cording to the sacred writings, our Adam and 

 Eve were placed in Paradise, or the Garden 

 of Eden ; and profane historians and poets of 

 the remotest antiquity, have bequeatlied to us 

 descriptions of gardens, redolent of the most 

 enchanting beauty, and breathing fragrances 

 capable of inspiring the utmost delight. Ee- 

 specting the locality of some of these gardens, 

 however, learned topographers are very widely 

 divided. For example, the garden of Eden 

 is supposed, by some, to have been situated in 

 Armenia ; by others, in Persia ; by others, in 

 Chaldea ; and James Silk Bucluugham in- 

 forms us, that the people of Damascus im- 

 plicitly believe that it was placed in the 

 neighbourhood of their city. Happy belief! 

 as it must impart to the reflective and dreamy 

 mind of the ^i:,Turk, the most agreeable 

 visions of the \<jng, long past. But the inha- 

 bitants of Ceylon declare that the garden of 

 Eden was in their country, in which we know 

 there is an Adam's Peak, rising to a height of 

 7,420 feet above the level of the sea ; an 

 Adam's Bridge, which consists of a chain of 

 shoals extending across the gulf of ilauaar, 

 between the island and the peninsula ; and a 

 tomb of Abel. They have also a tree, the Bivi 

 Ladncr, which, they say, bore the forbidden 

 fruit, which still grows in great beauty, amidst 

 an abundance of the most deliciously scented 

 flowers, most inviting and tempting to all who 

 behold them. The form of the fruit is such 

 as to suggest the idea of a piece huviug been 

 92G 



bitten out of the side by the sweet and innocent 

 mouth of our first mother ; and, to confirm 

 this fact, the Ceylonese affirm, that the fruit 

 was exquisite before this event took place, 

 though it is now •poisonous. Other countries 

 have been chosen for the localisation of this 

 celebrated garden ; and a Swedish professor 

 of the seventeenth century, composed a book 

 to prove that Sweden was the happy land in 

 which Eden had been placed. If so, it must 

 have been very cold in winter. 



THE GARDENS OF HESPERIDES. 



Eastern nations, in general, must have 

 taken great delight in gardens, from the man- 

 ner in which their enjoyments are usually 

 described. The gardens of Hesperides were 

 placed in Africa, near to Mount Atlas, or, 

 rather, somewhere among the valleys of the 

 chain which goes by that name. They are 

 described as situated in a spot upwards of 

 100 feet deep, and enclosed by very steep 

 and almost inaccessible heights. In them 

 grew apples of gold (oranges), pomegranates, 

 mulberries, olives, almonds, w'alnuts, and 

 grapes. The ornamental trees comprised the 

 arbutus, myrtle, bay, ivy, and wild olive. 

 They were inhabited by three celebrated 

 nymphs, daughters of Hesperus, and gmirded 

 by a terrific dragon, which never slept. Here 

 were — 



" Groves whose rich trees wept cilorons gums and bnlm ; 

 Others whose fruit, burnish'd with golden rind, 

 Hung enviable, Hesperian fables true, 

 If true, here only, and of delicious taste." 



Some writers have supposed these gardens 

 to have been nothing more than the oases in 



