538 Sckell's Landscape- Gardening. 



chitect Callimachus, who lived 540 years before Christ, dis- 

 covered this harmonious assemblage of nature and art, and from 

 it formed the Corinthian capital, the most perfect style in archi- 

 tecture, which unites in itself all that the purest taste in 

 splendour and perfect beauty could invent in this kind of art. 



Henbane (//yoscyamus niger), the Potentilla reptans, Portu- 

 laca oleracea, and the grasses, were dedicated to Mercury. 



Corn was dedicated to Isis ; and the maiden's hair fern 

 (^diantum Capillus Veneris) to Pluto. 



Juniperus communis and the iJhamnus catharticus were sacred 

 to the Eumenides, or Furies. 



The garlick (Allium Porrum) was sacred to the Lares, or 

 household gods. 



The following eight divinities protected gardens : — 



Ceres; Venus; Pomona; Flora; Feronia, nymph of the 

 woods and groves ; Priapus ; Vertumnus ; and Pales, protectress 

 of the flocks. 



VI. 



Among the higher architectural objects and decorations, the 

 garden should also include : 



1. Egyptian obelisks. These were usually ornamented with 

 hieroglyphics and other symbolical figures, and were used as 

 sundials. These obelisks have a very good effect in a garden, 

 particularly when they are erected on gentle declivities, or on 

 islands, or the banks of lakes, in which their image is reflected. 

 The height was generally nine or ten times the breadth of the 

 base, and the column decreased upwards to about the half, or 

 rather less than the half of the breadth of the base at the top, 

 where it terminated in an obtuse point formed by four flat 

 sloping surfaces. These obelisks can also be ornamented with 

 bas-reliefs, which transmit noble actions to future generations ; 

 they should also be decorated with the likenesses of celebrated 

 persons. 



2. The Egyptian pyramids were called by Pliny " proofs of 

 the folly of despotism," because more than a hundred thousand 

 men were said to have been employed for twenty years in the 

 erection of one. These edifices were, therefore, only remarkable 

 on account of their enormous size and great durability. Some 

 of them were 682 ft. in breadth, and 625 ft. in height. If py- 

 ramids, therefore, are to be erected in a garden, it is natural to 

 suppose that they must be on a very diminished scale; but such 

 an imitation would only be laughable, and it would be much 

 better not to make the attempt. 



3. Pillars are much more desirable as ornaments for a garden, 

 and they serve as historical monuments of great events and ac- 

 tions, which are thus handed down to future generations; such, 



