2 Introduction. 



Homer celebrates the gardens of Alcinous at 

 Phseacia 



" Without the courts, and to the gates adjoin' d, 

 A spacious garden lay, fenced all around, 

 There grew luxuriant many a lofty tree. 

 And on the garden's verge extreme 

 Flowers of all hues smiled all the year, arrang'd 

 With neatest art judicious." 



The terraced gardens of Semirajnis at Babylon were 

 celebrated by Diodorus and Josephus ; and by Xeno- 

 phon, those of Cyrus the younger, at Sardis, whose 

 reply to Lysander, admiring their beauty and inquir- 

 ing about their management, is recorded, " What do 

 you think has made the varied productions of these 

 gardens? the labour of my own hands." Theo- 

 phrastus, a disciple of Aristotle, considered the habits 

 of plants as worthy of study as those of man, bearing 

 each to the other striking analogy thus early teach- 

 ing some leading doctrines on the subject, which are 

 now commonly regarded as of modern discovery or 

 invention. The Peach is mentioned by Confucius ; 

 and Almonds were sent from Canaan into Egypt to 

 Joseph, as amongst the choicest fruits then known. 



After the late Sir Thomas Staples, one of the 

 longest survivors of the Irish House of Commons, 

 had passed his eightieth year, I had the pleasure of 

 teaching him, in his garden at Lissan, to bud roses 

 and other ornamental plants, which he wished to 

 learn, and afterwards practised ; and on that occa- 

 sion, as I best remember, he pointed out, in some life 



