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The Garden Magazine, June, 1922 



GARDEN FROM A WALL PAINTING IN THE VILLA OF LIVIA NEAR ROME 



pots in which the flowers for his celebration were produced in 

 the home. The Laurel was particularly used for crowns of 

 victory, and was almost consecrated to this purpose. 



Greek knowledge of both plants and animals was tremen- 

 dously enlarged through the conquests of Alexander. He invited 

 Aristotle, who had been his tutor, to go with him, and assigned 

 the philosopher a force of men to aid in collecting specimens of 

 the Asiatic fauna and flora unknown to the Greeks. These 

 Aristotle described in works which marked a great step in 

 botany, but are now lost. The pleasures of walking and talking 

 in a grove or garden were highly appreciated by the later Greek 

 philosophers, called, from this habit of walking about while dis- 

 cussing, the Peripatetic School. 



Pliny the Elder went so far as to declare that Epicurus es- 

 tablished the first pleasure garden in Athens: "Epicurus, that 

 connoisseur in the enjoyment of a life of ease, was the first to 

 lay out a garden in Athens; up to his time it had never been 

 thought of to dwell in the country in the middle of the town." 



Theophrastus (372-288 B. C), who was a pupil of both Plato 

 and Aristotle, and continued Aristotle's work in botany by 

 writing nine books on "Researches About Plants" and six on 

 the "Principles of Vegetable Life" which reveal him as a 

 thorough and acute inquirer, had a philosophic garden where he 

 was attended by many of his disciples. In his will he left this 

 garden in perpetuity for this purpose: "As to my garden, the 

 walk, and the house adjacent to the garden, I give them for- 

 ever to those of my friends mentioned below, who desire to de- 

 vote themselves in common to study and philosophy therein, 

 for everyone cannot always travel: provided that they shall 

 not be able to alienate this property; it shall not belong to any 

 of them individually; but they shall own it in common as a 

 sacred possession, and shall enjoy it peaceably and amicably as 

 is just and fitting. . . ." 



AMONG the ancient Romans the garden filled a much more 

 l\ important place than in Athens. 



As early as the First Century B. C, Marcus Porcius Cato, 

 the sternest of Roman censors, advised the establishment of 

 ornamental gardens: "Near the city you will have gardens in 



all styles — every kind of ornamental trees, bulbs from Megara, 

 Myrtle on palisades, both white and black, a Delphic and Cyp- 

 rian Laurel, the forest kind; hairless Nuts, and Filberts from 

 Praeneste and Greece. A city garden, especially of one who 

 has no other, ought to be planted and ornamented with all 

 possible care." 



The construction of the Roman house, with an inner court 

 open to the sky, allowed the use of this space as a small orna- 

 mental garden in which were planted flowers and vines. This 

 arrangement had great influence on the later development of 

 the small garden, as it was adopted in the mediaeval churches 

 and chateaux. 



The first to construct elaborate park-like gardens in Italy 

 was Lucullus (1 10-57 B. C). In his campaigns in the East, he 

 had become enamored with the splendor of the Asiatic hang- 

 ing gardens and paradises, and after his return constructed 

 his famous gardens at Naples, "lavishly bestowing all the 

 wealth and treasure which he got in the war upon them," ac- 

 cording to Plutarch, "insomuch that even now, with all the 

 advance of luxury, the Lucullean gardens are counted the no- 

 blest the emperor has. Tubero the stoic, when he saw his build- 

 ings at Naples, where he suspended the hills upon vast tunnels, 

 brought in the sea for moats and fish ponds around his house, 

 and built pleasure-houses in the waters, called him Xerxes in 

 a gown. . . ." 



Among the spoil which Lucullus had brought from the East 

 were wonderful statues which he used to embellish his gardens. 

 The many architectural features of his garden had much in- 

 fluence on subsequent Roman parks, and in fact upon the 

 Italian gardens of the Renaissance. He is also credited with 

 having first brought the Cherry into Italy. 



The pruning of Box into the form of animals and other highly 

 artificial shapes seems to have been first introduced into Italy 

 by a certain Marius, who was a friend of Caesar and a favorite 

 of Augustus. 



Pliny the Elder, the old Roman encyclopedist, briefly de- 

 scribed the flowers which he considered most important. He 

 recognized twelve varieties of Roses, of which the prevailing 

 color was red. The common Lily at the time was white, but 



