LITERATURE OF GARDENING. 533 



are an orchard of Pomegranates." " Let my beloved come 

 into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits ;" and trees, 

 plants, and flowers were apparently ever present to this 

 author's imagination. In the 5th chapter of Isaiah it is 

 said, speaking of an unfruitful vineyard, "And I will lay 

 it waste ; it shall not be pruned or digged ;" and in 

 Jeremiah (chap, ii.) "Yet had I planted thee a noble vine, 

 wholly a right seed; how then art thou turned into the 

 degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me." These 

 passages seem to show that pruning, digging, and raising 

 plants from seed were practised at that time. In the i8th 

 chapter of Isaiah we read " For afore the harvest, when 

 the bud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the 

 flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, 

 and take away and cut down the branches." The 3ist 

 chapter of Ezekiel, which is full of beauty, contains special 

 reference to the trees of the Garden of Eden, comparing 

 them with the Assyrian. 



The Garden of Eden is supposed to have been situated 

 in Persia, while that of the Hesperides, which contained 

 the Golden Apples (probably oranges) given by Juno to 

 Jupiter on the occasion of their marriage, and are de- 

 scribed by Scylax (600 B.C.), are supposed to have been 

 situated near Mount Atlas in Africa. 



The famous Gardens of Babylon formed by Semi- 

 ramis (2000 B.C.) were composed of groves and terraces, 

 and contained objects both for use and beauty. Those 

 who may wish to see a description of them will find it in 

 the writings of Diodorus and Strabo, and in the early 

 pages of Dr Falconer's "Historical View of the Gardens 

 of Antiquity." Sir Thomas Brown, in his "Garden of 

 Cyrus," says "Cyrus the elder, brought up in woods and 

 mountains, when time and power enabled, pursued the 

 dictate of his education, and brought the treasures of the 

 field into rule and circumscription, so nobly beautifying 

 the Hanging Gardens of Babylon that he was also thought 

 to be the author thereof." 



