No. 144.] 187 



Holmes, Dr. Leavitt, of Marcellii!!, Chester Coleman, of Brooklyn, 

 Mr. Van Boskerck, Captain Pell, and others —nearly forty in all. 



Solon Robinson was called to the chair. 



Henry Meigs, Secretary. 



The Secretary read the following papers, translated and select- 

 ed by him, viz : 



[Revue Horticolcj February 15, 1854.] 



ASSYRIAN HORTICULTURE. 

 Layard has done good service by his explorations at Nineveh. 

 Quintus Curtius rejected the story of the hanging gardens at Ba- 

 bylon, and so have other great historians, as so many fables. He 

 has found at Babylon a table of stone bearing a good representa- 

 tion, well preserved, of those famous gardens, established upon 

 platforms supported by columns, the style of which very much re- 

 sembles the Corinthian order. He has introduced into England 

 many kinds of oak trees from Kurdistan, especially the Quercus 

 Brantii, so named from the discoverer. Brant. It is the sacred tree 

 mentioned in the Bible, under which the King, Senacherib, sacri- 

 ficed to his false gods. This truth is shown by a transparent cy- 

 linder (doubtless an agate) found in the ruins of the palace ; it 

 bears an engraved figure precisely of the acorn of the sacred tree. 

 This oak is one of the most beautiful of the oak trees. 



The plains of Chaldea have been visited by very few bo- 

 tanists, so that they may be termed virgin to horticulturists. 

 From thence originally came to Europe some of our best 

 fruit trees, and lately an Englishman has brought into Eu- 

 rope, from there, the delicious Stan wick peach, the best of all, 

 and which the horticulturists of Great Britain pay (we may 

 say) its weight in gold for. Layard always speaks with en- 

 thusiasm of the vegetable riches of those vast plains, in spring 

 covered with flowers, one after another, daily changing color 

 through the whole scale of colors; this continues until stopped 

 by the summer heat. In the mountains of Kurdistan — their heads 

 are snowy in summer — are found truffles in abundance, and an 

 extensive trade in them is carried on. Dates form the basis of 



