6 Gleanings in Old Garden Literature. 



and order, for we hear of the orchard and 

 the herbary ; and another useful institution 

 was the midden or muck-hill. 



I can do no more within the restricted 

 space which is accorded me, than call atten- 

 tion to the very admirable picture which 

 Mr. J. A. St. John has drawn of the system 

 of horticulture and floriculture among the 

 Greeks, in his Manners and Customs of 

 Ancient Greece (1842) ; and, to some extent, 

 the English versions of the Charicles and 

 Gallus of Bekker will prove of service to 

 the student. 



Perhaps the best summary of this subject 

 of gardening among the Ancients is that of 

 Sir William Temple, in the second part of his 

 Miscellanea^ the very valuable paper headed 

 " Upon the Gardens of Epicurus ; Or, Of 

 Gardening in the Year 1685." 



Every reader is familiar at least with the 

 reputation of the Georgics of Virgil, which, with 

 Hesiod, Varro, and the other Rei Rustica 

 Scriptores, form the source to which we 

 must go for information on the subject in 

 hand ; and during the mediaeval period such 



