55 



SECTION II. 



HISTORY OF THE ART, FROM THE EARLIEST DOWN TO 

 THE PRESENT TIMES. 



When we consider the singular beauty and usefulness of 

 trees, it cannot seem surprising, that they should have been 

 the favourites of mankind in all ages. That the polished 

 nations of antiquity assiduously cultivated them, we have 

 the most unquestionable evidence, both for horticultural and 

 agricultural purposes. Theophrastus, who was the scholar 

 of Plato and Aristotle, composed an elaborate treatise on the 

 history and properties of plants, which, together with the 

 remains of the Greek geoponic writers, has survived the 

 wreck of learning, and evinces how great a degree of atten- 

 tion was bestowed on the subject, by that ingenious people. 



Among the Romans, the cultivation of trees formed an 

 early object of study. By the laws of the twelve tables, the 

 cutting down or injuring them was an offence, which was 

 visited with severe penalties.* Cato, Varro, and Columella 

 wrote particularly on both fruit and forest trees ; and Varro, 

 who was contemporary with Julius Ceesar, enumerates more 

 than fifty different writers on rural affairs (of which Arbori- 

 culture was a constituent part,) who in his time were held 

 in estimation.! 



In this state of rural information and intelligence, it was 

 natural for men to form the wish to give immediate effect to 

 trees, and thereby anticipate the slow progress of time, in 



* Note I. t De Re Rust. C. I. 



