lo Public Parks. 



when in her glory, was proud of her rural retreats and .. pleasure 

 grounds, which were laid out with walks and drives for chariot and 

 horseback exercises, with enclosures for wild beasts, apiaries, flower- 

 gardens, and fountains flowing from marble vases. The park proper, 

 in the immediate vicinity of the houses, was formal and symmetrical 

 with the architecture, and the walls were lined with box and plane 

 trees, sheared to the shape of the walls. From the description of the 

 younger Pliny of his Tusculan villa, we are led to infer that the 

 principal object of Roman landscape gardening was its effect upon 

 the perspective ; as here everything was arranged with reference to 

 the best distant views of the Campagna. In fact the same is the case 

 with the grounds and gardens of Italy at the present day, the artistic 

 preponderating over the natural. 



The Arabs, when at the height of power and civilization, paid 

 some attention to landscape gardening, and carried w^ith them their 

 tastes into Spain. This is shown by the fact that the Caliph Ab 

 durrahman I, himself laid out a botanical garden at Cordova, a;nd 

 caused rare seeds to be collected by his own travelers in Syria and 

 other countries of Asia. He planted, near the palace of Rissafah, 

 the first date-tree known in Spain, and sang its praises in a poem, 

 expressive of plaintive longing for his native Damascus. 



Prescott, in his "Conquest of Mexico," says, "There is no doubt, 

 from the accordant testimonies of Hernan Cortes, in his reports to 

 the Emperor Charles V., of Bernal Diaz, Gomara Ovieda, and 

 Hernandez, that at the time of the conquest of Montezuma's Empire 

 there were no menageries and botanic gardens In any part of Europe, 

 which could be compared with these of Huaztepec, Chepultepec, 

 Iztapalapan, and Tezuco." Humboldt saw two trees ( Taxodiutn 

 disticha — Linn.) near Chepultepec, which he supposed to be the 

 remnants of an ancient garden or pleasure-ground of Montezuma's, 

 which measured thirty-eight feet In circumference. 



In France, Germany, and England, landscape gardening received 

 but little attention for many years, and their imitations of the Roman 

 and Italian styles were poor, leaving but little of the artistic. The 

 Dutch school at one time was foremost. It was a revival of the 

 ancient or geometric style, in which statues, vases, and busts were 

 interspersed with fountains, and the various forms of the vegetable 

 kingdom. 



Landscape gardening is a word of modern coinage, first used by 

 the poet Shenstone. In England but little attention was paid to the 



