174 
THE FLOWER GARDENS AND ORCHARDS OF ANCIENT GREECE. 
oil. So skilful were the ancient Hellenes in 
this process, that, during a particular festival, 
the seeds of certain flowers were sown in 
silver pots, and compelled to bloom within 
eight days. 
The fruit was often compelled by art to 
assume various fantastic forms — that of the 
human face, of birds, of animals, and occa- 
sionally of a bottle. Sometimes, it is declared 
by several writers, peaches and almonds were 
produced, covered with written characters. 
Stoneless peaches, walnuts without husks, 
figs white on one side and black on the othei', 
were, mirabile dictu ! produced, according to 
the same authority. 
So prolific is the soil of Hellas, that when, 
in the autumn of the year 1830, several young 
branchless pear-trees were, as we find stated 
by Thiersch, transplanted from Malta to the 
neighbourhood of Athens, they were next 
season literally loaded and bent down with fruit. 
All seeds and plants were put into the 
ground before the moon had risen above the 
horizon. The trees which were most com- 
monly propagated by seed were the almond, 
the chestnut, the white beech, the filbert, the 
pistachio, the damascene, the edible pine and 
the pine-tree, the cypress, the laurel, the 
palm, the maple, the ash and the fig. Those 
which were raised from suckers were the 
cherry, the common nut, the rhamnis jujuba, 
the apple, the medlar, the myrtle, and the 
dwarf laurel ; while those with which the 
simple and more certain method of producing 
trees from boughs was adopted, were the 
olive, the quince, the black and white poplar, 
the ivy, the vine, the willow, the box, and 
the cytisus, with many of those with which 
the other plans were also adopted. The 
citron was also propagated ' by this means. 
Delia Eocca says, speaking of this tree and 
the orange, that they perfumed the sur- 
rounding air with the prodigious quantity 
with which they were loaded, and which 
bloomed at the first breath of genial heat. 
But, as we have said, the Hellenic orchard, 
since it was not altogether devoted to utility, as 
shown by the scrupulous manner in which it 
was swept and adorned with trees which bore 
no fruit, was not dedicated to the purpose of 
growing trees alone. The various beds and 
borders were often edged with parsley, while 
the beds themselves produced numerous gar- 
den vegetables in the greatest abundance. 
This fertility was attributed, by the super- 
stitious inhabitants of old Greece, to the prac- 
tice which prevailed, of burying an ass's head 
in a deep pit in the centre of the ground, and 
sprinkling the spot with the juice of the lotus ; 
but Lucian affords a very satisfactory ex- 
planation of the fertility of the Hellenic gar- 
den, where he mentions the abundant and 
careful irrigation, and the elaborate modes of 
tillage which were pursued.* Turnips, cab- 
bages, onions, lettuces, f endive, asparagus, 
broad beans, kidney beans, peas, and arti- 
chokes, grew in well-prepared beds. Near 
them might be observed boxes for forcing 
cucumbers, while, if a brook ran through the 
garden, the finest water-melons in the world 
often flourished in its neighbourhood. Huge 
gourds hung amid the branches. To judge by 
the various arts practised by the ancient Greeks, 
in order to force such plants as the cucumber 
and the melon to the most enormous develop- 
ment, it would have been imagined that the 
gardeners were preparing for a fancy show. 
The cucumber they especially delighted in 
producing seedless and of a monstrous shape. 
One practice was to introduce the young 
cucumber into a hollow reed, through which 
it projected itself until it attained an immense 
length. 
The savoy-cabbage, brocoli, and sea-kale, 
flourished well. One species of this plant was 
supposed to be endued with the gift of prophecy. 
Radishes, according to Theophrastus, were 
rendered sweet by allowing the seeds to re- 
main for a certain time steeped in wine and 
honey, or the fresh juice of grapes. The same 
author says, that to produce large and fine 
parsley it w^as customary to wrap the seed in 
a rag, or a wisp of straw, before putting it 
into the earth, after which it -was well watered. 
Rue and sweet mint were extensively culti- 
vated. 
Two species of cistus were cultivated in the 
Greek gardens ; of the other plants found in 
them there were the blue eringo, cresses, bas- 
tard parsley, anise, pennyroyal,water-mint, sea- 
onions, monk's rhubarb, coriander ; purslane, 
yellow white and red; hellebore, bushorigany, 
flame-coloured fox-glove, brank ursine, or 
bear's foot, a plant much admired for the huge 
pyramid of white flowers which it bears ; 
chervil, starwort, giant fennel, mustard, the 
cumin, pepperwort, parsnips, garlics and 
leeks, which were sometimes produced as 
large as turnips. 
Mushrooms were cultivated after a peculiar 
fashion. A poplar tree was felled and placed 
in the earth to rot ; the spot was constantly 
watered, and in due time was covered with 
fine mushrooms ; they also sometimes grew 
spontaneously at the foot of the elm or pine, 
and were occasionally produced by watering 
the ground round the foot of a fig tree, after 
it was well covered with manure, when a 
colony of them sprang up in a very short time. 
* Traite sur les Abeilles, torn. i. p. 5. 
f Lettuces were whitened by being tied at top, and 
partly buried in sand. It was thought that they were 
improved by being watered over night with a mixture 
of wine and honey. 
