Introduction. 3 



of Cicero, mention of the orator stealing out from 

 Home, in his busiest times, to a favourite villa, to 

 watch the growth of his Oriental Plane trees. 



I introduce the next few passages from the pen of 

 Cicero, about other men of note, as somewhat show- 

 ing the salutary influence of change from city to 

 country, for however short a time, and of pretty 

 plants and flowers, on minds which might be thought 

 little susceptible of such impressions. 



In his work on Oratory, Cicero describes a dialogue 

 which was held under a tree of the Platanus group, 

 which were some of the first exotics introduced into 

 Italy for beauty. It was at a villa of his friend, 

 Lucius Crassus. At a time of public tumult, Crassus 

 retired from Rome, during the games there, to his 

 Tusculan villa, as if, says Cicero, to collect his 

 thoughts. He brought with him two promising stu- 

 dents of oratory, for whose instruction the dialogue 

 was introduced Caius Amelius Cotta and Publius 

 Sulpicius Eufus ; Quintus Mutius Scaevola, an emi- 

 nent lawyer and father-in-law of Crassus, and Marc 

 Anthony, made up the party. The subject was taken 

 from one of Plato's Dialogues, and, if worthy of the 

 pens who wrote, may not be uninteresting to some 

 readers of these pages, who have forgotten or been 

 ignorant of it. 



Phsedrus (meaning the beautiful or lovely), after 

 a busy day in Athens, was going to refresh himself 

 by a walk outside the city, when he meets Socrates, 

 who says, " My dear Phcedrus, whence come you, and 



B2 



