AND ORCHARDS OF ANCIENT GREECE. 
171 
gardeners of that early age put in practice in 
the cultivation of their flowers, we should wit- 
ness considerable improvement in the science. 
But the garden was not a mere succession 
of flower beds and violet banks, and groups of 
ornamental trees ; spreading lawns alternated 
with shrubberies, bosquets, close and shady 
thickets, curiously planned arcades, and 
avenues composed of trees so disposed that they 
presented a variety of blended hues and 
foliage, which ofl^ered an agreeable aspect 
to the eye. In the summer months the hot 
rays of the sun, unless intercepted, would 
have caused annoyance and inconvenience to 
those who were tempted to walk out and linger 
among the flower beds. Here and there, there- 
fore, were planted numerous trees, the cedar, 
the cypress, the black and white poplar, the 
ash, the linden, the elm, and the platane, either 
singly or in well-disposed groups. Further 
to secure a cool and pleasant atmosphere, the 
gardens of the wealthy Avere adorned by 
splashing fountains, placed either in the midst 
of the lawn, at the head of every avenue, at 
the entrance of the bowers, under the shade 
of the arching arcades, or else throwing up- 
ward clouds of spray in the centre of the 
planted parterres, and supplying numerous 
little channels which conducted the water 
wherever it was needed for the purposes of 
irrigation. AYe are, of course, seeking to 
affoi'd an idea of the pleasure grounds and 
gardens of the rich, for in the little, tastefully 
cultivated plots of the humbler Hellenes such 
attributes of wealth could not be looked for. 
The evergreens- of Greece were numerous. 
First among them is the myrtle, which attained 
a high perfection. In one spot it might 
be observed blooming as a small shrub, dotted 
with those delicately white blossoms which 
impart so much beauty to it ; in another, rising 
to the height of a tree ; while elsewhere it was 
planted in dense clusters and arched in bowers. 
These, when spotted with its blossoms, inter- 
mingled with those of the jasmine, the eglan- 
tine, and the yellow tufts of the phillyrea, 
presented a spectacle than which nothing 
more exquisite can be imagined. 
" The land where beauty had her birth, 
Where greenest valleys tempt the eye, 
Where brightest flowerets gem the earth, 
And where the sweetest songsters fly 
Aloft, below the bluest sky ; 
Where gardens full of fairest flowers 
Oppress the breeze that wanders by; 
Where fountains fling their pearly showers 
. 'Mid verdant lawns and myrtle bowers ; 
A land whose beauty cannot die ; 
But where the race that gave it fame 
Is lost in slavery and shame." 
The berries of the myrtle, which in some 
particular places assumed a black colour, were 
often esteemed a delicacy. 
" Thickets of the tamarisk," says Mr. St. 
John, whose description of the flower gar- 
den of ancient Hellas is by far the most com- 
plete of any that has been written, " the 
strawberry tree, whose fruit is said to be exceed- 
ingly sweet, the juniper, the box, the bay, the 
styrax, the andrachne, and the white-flowered 
laurel, in whose dark leaves the morning dew 
collects and glistens in the sun, like so many 
tiny mirrors of burnished silver, varied the 
surface of the lawn, connecting the bowers 
and the copses, and the flower beds, and the 
grassy slopes, with those loftier piles of ver- 
dure, consisting of the pine-tree, the smilax, 
the cedar, the carob, the maple, the ash, the 
elm, the platane, and the evergreen oak, 
which here and there towered in the grounds. 
In many places the vine shot up among the 
ranges of elms or platanes, stretching its 
long twisted arm from trunk to trunk, like so 
many festoons of intermingled leaves and 
tendrils, and successive clusters of golden or 
purple grapes." 
The blue and yellow clematis was a fa- 
vourite. It hung its loving garland around 
the stems or along the boughs of the trees, in 
company with the tender honeysuckle and the 
bryony. Sometimes a large silver fir rose at 
intervals over the grounds, with its bright 
yellow flowers, and, supported upon it, the 
mistletoe threw immense clusters of its 
foliage over the trunk and branches. The 
ash tree was occasionally cultivated, and 
formed a majestic ornament to the pleasure 
grounds. Its bark, generally four or five 
inches thick, was stripped off once in three 
years, an operation which caused it to flourish 
with additional vigour every time it was re- 
peated, 
It is to be regretted that we have not been 
furnished with any complete and exact de- 
scription of an ancient Greek flower garden, 
which might be considered as a type of the 
national taste in that respect. We cannot, 
much as we may desire, take our readers with 
us through the entrance of the grounds, down 
the principal walks, and through the intri- 
cate maze of flower-beds, bosquets, and shrub- 
beries ; we can but point out the leading 
features which characterised the generality of 
gardens, without delineating a picture of the 
whole. Doubtless, although the artificial 
arrangement observed was so judiciously 
planned that the garden appeared as though 
it were merely the work of nature, there was, 
nevertheless, a harmony which pervaded the 
whole, and excluded extravagant combinations, 
allowing each particular species of ornamental 
disposition to melt, as it were, into another, 
so as to present a natural and pleasing ap- 
pearance. 
The Greeks possessed an exquisite sense of 
