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The Garden Magazine, February, 1922 



the god Amon. These 

 included, according to the 

 inscription, "thirty-one 

 living myrrh trees, im- 

 ported as wonders of Punt 

 for the glory of this god, 

 lord of Thebes; never be- 

 fore was such a deed since 

 the beginning of time." 



In the speech of the 

 queen at the ceremony, 

 she declared: "Trees were 

 taken up in god's land, 

 and transplanted in the 

 ground in Egypt, for the 

 king of the gods." 



One use of the Myrrh 

 trees is indicated in the 

 queen's statement con- 

 cerning them: "They were 

 imported to produce myrrh 

 for pressing out ointment 

 for the divine limbs." 



In transplanting them to the temple garden, the queen made 

 perhaps the first attempt at founding a botanical garden. She 

 seems to have realized this, as she declared: " I have heard my 

 father . . . bidding me to found for him a Punt on his 

 estate, to transplant the trees of god's land near to his temple 

 in his garden." 



WITH a similar motive, the queen's younger brother, Thoth- 

 mes III, sent out an expedition which collected many 

 rare plants, probably from western Asia and the east coast of 

 Africa. They are pictured in a long succession of figures on the 

 walls of the Temple of Karnak, but still await careful study by 

 some historical botanist. Thothmes 1 1 1 also presented a 

 garden to the god, Min, as noted in the inscription: " I, the king, 

 founded for him a garden for the first time, planted with every 

 desirable tree, in order to produce therefrom divine offerings for 

 every day." The fact that the king says that this was the 

 first garden made for Min, suggests that the custom of supply- 

 ing the temples with gardens was just becoming established. 



II. HARVESTING FLAX AND GRAIN 



From the tomb of Senezen, a lady 

 ing as well as harvesting is bein 

 of a pair of cows yoked together 



Another king of the 

 Eighteenth Dynasty, 

 Amenhotep III, bursts into 

 praise of the garden as 

 follows: "The garden is 

 planted with every flower; 

 how lovely is Nun in his 

 pond every season!" 



A very remarkable rep- 

 resentation of a garden 

 has been found in a tomb 

 at Thebes (Fig. IV, page 

 313). It is situated at the 

 side of a canal which ap- 

 pears at the right of the 

 picture. It is entered 

 through a gate, and per- 

 haps a porter's lodge, from 

 which adoorpasses intothe 

 vineyard. Here the vines 

 are trained against the 

 stone wall and upon trel- 

 lises. Four ponds appearin 

 the plan, in each of which may be seen Lotus, and either geese or 

 ducks. At the side of the ponds are flowering plants, and facing 

 two of the ponds are small arbors from which one could look out 

 upon the water. Various rows of trees are depicted. At the top 

 and bottom appear rows of Dom Palms and Date Palms, shelter- 

 ing smaller trees, which may represent Acacias. The row of 

 trees at the right of the garden is probably made up of Syca- 

 mores. Other sorts of trees are represented, but cannot be iden- 

 tified with certainty. In the garden house, which may be seen at 

 the left of the vineyard, are shown several offerings of flowers. 

 While too much stress should not be laid on the trees and 

 plants actually depicted, there is no doubt that the painting 

 indicates the most popular species, and, above all, affords a 

 clear conception of the formal plan for the setting out of the 

 garden favored by the Egyptians of that period. 



Another tomb painting from Thebes gives only a view into the 

 garden, but is interesting as including the Pomegranate, and 

 as showing the relation of the garden to the mansion, a plan of 

 which is drawn in detail. 



of the Nineteenth Dynasty. Plow- 

 g done by the, to us, novel means 

 by the horns. (See text, page 313) 



111. IMPORTING INCENSE TREES FROM THE LAND OF PUNT FOR A TEMPLE GARDEN IN EGYPT 



This expedition sent by the energetic Hatshepsut, a queen of the Eighteenth Dynasty, is probably the earliest recorded transplanting 

 of trees from one country to another. Punt has been identified as that part of the Somali country on the eastern coast of Africa bor- 

 dering the Gulf of Aden which meant a distance of about 2000 miles traversed. (See descriptive text above and on page preceding.) 



