Natural Hi/lory of the Ancients. 131 



vi. 195 ; " Odyfley," xx. 278), if that word be not 

 rather derived from the A.S. ortegeard, or garden of 

 herbs. 1 Laertes, in the " OdyfTey," is reprefented 

 as a gardener, and Ulyffes on his return finds him 

 " alone in the terraced vineyard, digging about 

 a plant." The fon addreffes him, " Old man, thou 

 haft no lack of {kill in tending a garden ; lo, thou 

 careft well for all, nor is there aught whatfoever, 

 either plant, or fig-tree, or vine, or olive, or pear, 

 or garden-bed in all the clofe that is not well feen 

 to." Thefe words give fome idea of a Homeric 

 garden. The pathetic lines of UlyfTes when dif- 

 covering himfelf to his aftonifhed father will fill 

 up fome of the outlines : " Come, and I will tell 

 thee the trees through all the terraced garden, 

 which thou gaveft me once for mine own ; and I 

 was afking thee this and that, being but a little 

 child, and following thee through the garden. 

 Through thefe very trees we were going, and thou 

 didft tell me the names of each of them. Pear- 

 trees thirteen thou gaveft me, and ten apple-trees, 

 and figs two fcore, and as we went thou didft name 

 the fifty rows of vines thou wouldeft give me, 

 whereof each one ripened at divers times, with all 

 manner of clufters on their boughs, when the 

 feafons of Zeus wrought mightily on them from 

 on high. 2 



Roman gardens, again, were for the moft part 

 formal pleafure-grounds planted with fruits and 



1 For Greek gardens, fee Becker's "Charicles," p. 203, note 

 (ed. 1880). 



2 "Odyffey," xxiv. 244 and 335 (Butcher and Lang's 

 tranflation). 



