SACRED AND CLASSICAL PLANTING. 
489 
the ruined palaces of distinguished ancients ; 
the fragments of the baths of Titus ; the 
vaults of the Temple of Peace ; the Sepulchral 
Pyramid of Caius Cassius ; the tower of 
Cecilia Metella ; and farther in the distance, 
the Coelian Mount ; the temple of Minerva ; 
the baths of Caracalla; and the Appian Way; 
all waited upon by this gloomy attendant, so 
appropriate to this scene of fallen greatness. 
The Cypress is a tree which maybe employed 
to treat advantage as a contrast to the outline 
of all Grecian buildings. When young, it 
requires protection in winter, and the best 
way to protect it is to stick dead branches 
around each plant. 
The Sweet Bay {Lauras nobilis) was very 
highly prized by the ancient Greeks and 
liomans. It was strictly a native of both 
their countries, and known under the name of 
Daphne. It flourishes to this day on the 
banks of the Peneus. It was the emblem of 
victory, and the victorious were crowned with 
it. It formed the chief adornment to the 
greatest poets, hence the title of poet-laureate. 
The most eminent of the Caesars wore it 
almost continually; and such was its celebrity, 
that a sprig of it popularly bestowed, was looked 
upon as a mark of the highest possible honour. 
It forms a beautiful European shrub in the 
climate of England ; and where at all exposed, 
it should be invariably covered up with straw 
and mats during winter, as its freshness in 
spring, when so treated, invariably shows. No 
tree will better repay a liberal application of 
well-rotted manure. 
In a Greek g?,rden the Lime-tree (Tilia 
europad) was plc.nted so as to form a some- 
what sinuous avenue or passage, wide and 
spacious, tbrp'ugh which clouds of fragrance 
were waftetf to the apartments of the mansion. 
This tree contributed its full share of such 
fragranre ; and with this view it was no doubt 
preferred toother high trees to skirt the back- 
ground of all shrubberies, thickets, arcades, 
au'l avenues of the fairest seats in Hellas. It 
was likewise one of the chief of those selected 
to be planted singly on lawns, forming an ex- 
cellent protection from the sun's rays, and 
alluring swarms of bees to its flowers. In 
the hum of that insect the Greek heard sweet 
music, and it led the way in his fancy to the 
thymy pastures of his loved Hymettus. 
Jupiter and Mercury, when travelling in dis- 
guise throughout Asia, wen' received by 
Baucis, who, with her husband Philemon, lived 
in a small cottage in Phrygia. The gods 
were delighted with the hospitality they met 
with in this humble dwelling, which Jupiter 
metamorphosed into a splendid temple ; and 
granting the request of Baucis, that she and her 
husband should die at the same time, they were, 
after living to old age, transformed into trees, 
which rose in the front-of the temple — sheinto a 
lime, and he into an oak. The lime grows vigo- 
rously in any situation where the subsoil is loose. 
The Platauus [P. orientalis) can never die 
so long as history exists. It is much to the 
honour of ancient emperors and princes, that 
amidst all the concerns of empire a love for 
this sylvan chief was shown so prominently, 
that historians have minutely handed down to 
us the instances of homage paid to this object. 
Throughout Greece and Rome the tree rose 
in considerable grandeur, with an umbrageous 
canopy, affording a cool and dense shade from 
the sun's rays. Orators aud statesmen, and 
the chief men of those cities, grouped it around 
their villas. Xerxes became so much en- 
amoured of a tree of this species, which grew 
in Lycia, that he halted beside it with an 
army of 1.700,000 ; so that for some days 
neither the importance of his expedition, nor 
honour, nor the necessary movement of this 
prodigious army, could induce him to leave it. 
When obliged to part with it, he had a figure 
of it engraved on a gold medal, which he con- 
tinually wore. This tree was planted pro- 
fusely around Athens, near the Gymnasia, 
and around the public schools. The groves of 
Epicurus, where Aristotle taught, were formed 
of it, as were also the groves of Academus. 
Socrates swore by the Platanus, and many 
thought it a crime to swear by a tree of such 
beauty. It still grows on the banks of the rivers 
in Greece, and indeed throughout that land ; 
but it is to be seen in its greatest perfection 
only in moist places. The finest Plane 
trees in England are at Thetford, in the county 
of Norfolk, growing in a deep, free, moist 
loam on the bank of a river, and in such soil 
and situation it ought to be planted. It may- 
be well to observe, that this tree is by no 
means fitted to decorate exposed situation-, not 
even the more distant parts of paik scenery ; 
but strictly to adorn home scenes near to our 
residences, or such other spots as are com- 
pletely under the dominion of art. Is it neces- 
sary to refer in proof of this to the picture it 
presents when found, as it sometimes is, 
classed with the hardy elm, or the roughened 
and contorted figure of the oak ? Though a 
vigorous growing tree, it is very easily in- 
jured ; and in most seasons, during the cold 
winds of May, it has a scorched appearance. 
British skies, winds, and storms test the cha- 
racter of trees ; and if we find this individual 
when abroad Shrivelled and blackened even in 
May, our course surely is to lake it home and 
nurse it beside our dwellings. Though its 
foliage is tender, the trie is by no means 
deficient in a certain picturesque outline; its 
young spray proceeds in a zig-zag direction, 
filling up every space with verdure ; yet, from 
the spray and branches being irregularly dis- 
