CHYETOGASTRA STRIGOSA. 
175 
" On other occasions," we find in Mr. St. 
John's description, " they chose a light sandy 
soil accustomed to produce seeds; then burning 
brushwood, when the air was in a state indi- 
cating rain, this ambiguous species of vege- 
table started forth with the first shower. The 
same effect was produced by watering the 
ground thus prepared, though this species was 
supposed to be inferior." 
Truffles were favourites with the ancient 
Greeks, though what methods were employed 
for discovering them have no where been 
described. They were found chiefly in the 
sandy plains near Cyrene, and on the elevated 
hills of Thrace. They were eaten both cooked 
and raw. 
If we have failed, in the course of these 
rambling remarks, to impart an idea of the 
manner in which the inhabitants of ancient 
Greece planned and laid out their gardens, we 
have nevertheless touched on most of those 
means and materials by which their gardens 
and their companion orchards were rendered 
beautiful and valuable to their owners ; and it 
may well be conceived that if the Hellenes 
keenly appreciated the delight to be derived 
from flowers and fruits ; if they were ac- 
quainted with the method of bringing these 
flowers and fruits to a high degree of excel- 
lence, if not to complete perfection ; if they 
exhibited a continual solicitude to discover 
new modifications, and new arts by which to 
render their pleasure grounds yearly more 
and more beautiful ; that they were not in- 
sensible to the necessity of preserving an 
elegant and chaste congruity in the disposal 
of those gardens. Under whatever aspect it 
appeared, ancient Hellas was beautiful. Its 
mountains and its valleys, its hills and plains, 
its cities and its villages, its meadows, fields, 
and forests, its farms, its upland pastures, and 
its gay and brilliant gardens and abundant 
orchards, all were pervaded by that soft mag- 
nificence which was the distinguishing feature 
of the most favoured country in the world. 
The more we study the history of old 
Greece — not merely the history of her con- 
quests, her glory in war, and her memorable 
rulers — but also the history of her people, her 
civilization and her arts, the more do we feel 
regret for the beauty which has passed away, 
the prosperity which has deserted her. But 
with the degeneracy of the race that inhabits 
her, came the degeneracy of her civilization. 
She sank, and her arts sank with her. Nature 
is not now less beautiful, but men know less how 
to appreciate and improve her gifts. Greece, 
the country, is the same ; but the Greeks 
have become an enervated, enslaved, and de- 
spised race. The results have been felt in 
each and every branch of her domestic in- 
dustry. 
[Many of the foregoing statements are 
somewhat of the "fabulous" class.] 
CHYETOGASTRA STRIGOSA. 
ChcBfogastra strigosa, De Candolle (strigose 
Chaetogastra). — Melastomaceae § Melastomeas- 
Osbeckieae. 
The majority of Melastomaceae are large- 
growing, and many of them coarse-looking 
plants, but neither of these qualities is pos- 
sessed by the present subject. On the con- 
trary, it is dwarf and neat, and bears such a 
profusion of blossoms as to become a very 
conspicuous object when in a blooming state. 
