860 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ AprU 30, 1891. 
beautiful plant, I may accompany the figure with a brief resume of what 
has been recorded. Rosa Banksias was first described in 1871 by 
B. Brown in Aiton’s ‘ Hortus Kewensis,’ where it is stated to have been 
introduced into England (presumably to Kew) from China in 1807 by 
Mr. William Kerr. It is not stated whether the plant was white or 
yellow flowered, nor whether single or double flowered. That it was 
however the white and double flowered is certain, for the next published 
account of it is in the volume for 1818 of the ‘ Bot. Mag.,’ where it is 
represented (plate 1954) in this condition, the specimen having been 
obtained from Sir Joseph Banks’ garden at Springrove, Isleworth (now 
the residence of Mr. Pears, the energetic manufacturer of soap). Though 
delicate, it at once became a favourite under the name of ‘ The Lady 
Banks’ Rose,’ or the ‘ Rose without a thorn,’ the latter a hardly correct 
name. In 1819 it was figured in the ‘ Bot. Reg.’ (plate 397) in the 
same white double condition, and from the same garden, where it 
had attained 20 feet in height or more, and with the remark that 
the single flowered variety had been found by Dr. Abel growing on the 
walls of Nankin. 
“In 1820 Lindley’s admirable ‘ Monograph of Roses’ was published, 
in which the double white again appears as the only form known. In 
1827 the double yellow is for the first time figured, and by Bindley in 
the volume of the ‘ Bot. Reg.’ (plate 1105), with the observation that 
the first indication of its existence is to be found in a note (overlooked 
when elaborating the ‘ Monograph ’) in Roxburgh’s ‘ Hortus Ben- 
g.alensis,’ where, under the name of R. inermis, both the double white 
and double yellow are alluded to with their Chinese n.ames, as they were 
also in the Roxburghian MSS., preserved in the Banksian library. It 
was on discovering this, after the publication of the ‘ Monograph of 
Roses,’ that the Royal Horticultural Society, of which Bindley was 
Secretary, directed Mr. John Damper Parks (who was being sent to 
China in 1823 by the Society) to obtain the yellow form, which he did, 
returning with it in 1824. Dr. Bindley describes it as, on the whole, a 
more desirable plant than the white variety, being more hardy, flowering 
more freely, and having deeper green leaves, but adds that it is less 
fragrant. The only other early notice of this plant is by Dr. Abel in his 
narrative of his travels in China, to which coirntry he went as physician 
to Lord Macartney’s embassy. Abel mentions it as R. Banksiana. 
“ Indigenous specimens of R. Banksias are in the Kew Herbarium 
collected in the Ichang province on the Nan-t’o Mountains by 
Dr. Henry, and in Yun-nan, by the Abb4 Delavay, also from Japan 
(Siebold). The single yellow form was sent to Kew by Mr. Hanbury, 
from his magnificent garden of the Palazzo Orengo, near Mentone, in 
1871, and by Messrs. Paul & Son, from Cheshunt, in 1887. As stated 
above, the specimen figured is from Canon Ellacombe’s garden at Bitton, 
near Bath, where it is quite hardy. ’ 
The flowers are of a yellow tint, somewhat like that popularly termed 
“ old gold,” the petals are deeply notched at the margin, but are rounded 
or cordate in form. The umbels contain six to twelve or more flowmrs 
on short slender peduncles, and are chiefly borne on lateral growths. 
The leaves are composetl of pure narrow lanceolate bright green pinnae, 
and have an elegant appearance. 
THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON. 
[A paper read by Hr. Hctchixgs Eaves, at a meeting of the Croydon Gardeners’ 
and Amateurs’ Mutual Improvement Society, March 24tli, 1891.] 
At the invitation of my friend Mr. Stanley Baxter I have come 
to address you briefly upon a subject which, i regret to say, is so 
hedged around with uncertainty, and so shadowy, consequent upon the 
lapse of ages, that I fear my few remarks must be at best fragmentary 
in character. I shall, however, endeavour to string together those 
fragments in such manner that you may be enabled to form some idea 
of that marvel of antiquity, “ the hanging gardens of ancient Babylon.” 
The Babylonian gardens of any moment were few, but sublime in 
character ; our modern gardens, on the other hand, are universal, but 
chastened in character, beautiful in des’gn, highly calculated to elevate 
the mind, and possessing by their charm a true incentive to happiness. 
We must honestly confess that it is a difficult matter to fully estimate 
the true character of these Babylonian groves by a mere comparison 
of them with institutions of our own times. Take for instance a 
rustic bridge which spans the brook in yonder sylvan va'ley—how it 
delights one by its very simplicity. There is a charm about it which 
calls forth our warmest admiration ; whilst on the other hand we 
behold a gigantic structure stretching across the dark waters of a 
Scottish Firth, which appals by its magnitude, and fills one with wonder 
rather than admiration. In like manner the Ivy-clad village church, 
surrounded by stately Elms and the rich foliage of the Copper Beech, no 
less rejoices by its picturesque simplicity, whilst the hoary pile of a 
Milan cathedral or the majestic ruins of a temple of Karnak fill one 
with awe and seal one’s lips in mute astonishment, and I presume this 
in a greater or less degree has been the experience of the majority, 
I shall never forget how fully some few years ago I realised this 
difference between the sublime and the beautiful. On a bright after¬ 
noon in the month of March I was leaning against the bulwarks of a 
French steamer ; as we glided through the blue waters of the Gulf of 
Suez I was gazing with some feelings of awe upon the distant, rugged, 
lightning-riven heights of Mount Sinai. I thought and felt as I 
contemplated this hoary range that there was no mountain on earth so 
unique in character, history, and grandeur. An Everest and a Matterhorn 
may rise to a higher altitude, but in that their interest ceased. What a 
contrast this ia to the Pine-clad hills which grace the shores of a Scotch 
loch or an English lake. On the one hand we arc awed by sublimity, 
on the other charmed by simple beauty. Thus much by way of 
i lustration. The contrasts are great I admit, but equally great is that 
w’hich exists between a modern and an ancient eastern garden. From 
the sublime and beautiful of to-day we will now turn to that which 
characterised the hanging gardens of Babylon, and the better to realise 
their stupendous character we will take a hasty glance at the City of 
the Nimrod.s. 
Babylon (the modern Hillah) is the Greek Balrel, or Bab-ili—the 
Gate of Goil, or, as is sometimes designated, “The Gate of the Go<ls.” 
It w’as also known as the Hollow, consequent upon its situation on the 
banks of the Euphrates, and down to later times as Din Tir, or the House 
of the Jungle. There can be no doubt that Babylon, the metropolis of 
the Babylonio-Chaldjean empire, was one of the most wonderful cities 
of the old w'orld situated on a plain on both sides of the river Euphrates, 
which equally divided it. It is supposed to have occupied the site of 
the Babet of Nimrod’s kingdom. Its circumference is supposed to have 
exceeded fifty-five miles, and it was surrounded by a wall 350 feet high, 
outside of which was a vast trench filled with water. To Nebuchadnezzar 
that marvellous city w'as indebted for those vast structures which m<wle 
it one of the wonders of the world, though it may be said to have been 
at the height of its glory at the accession of Assur-bani-pal, the famous 
Sardanapalus of the Greeks. 
One of the most famous buildings (and the one which concerns us 
mostly) was the magnificent palace of Nebuchadnezzar known as “ The- 
Admiration of Mankind,” which, together with its gardens, measured 
nearly eight miles in circumference. The building of this marvellous 
structure, together with the perfecting of its unique gardens, was com¬ 
menced by Nabopolassar somewhere about 025 B.C., and completed by 
his son Nebuchadnezzar some years after his acces.sion in 604 B.C., so 
that, roughly speaking, remembering the long reign of the latter king 
(forty-three years), it is not improbable that that vast undertaking 
spread over a quarter of a century, although it is on record that it 
occupied but fifteen days in building. Next to impossible as this may 
appear, we must, nevertheless, not lose sight of the fact that in those 
remote ages Eastern potentates, in order to compass their lightest wishes, 
unblushingly impo.sed upon whole armies of their subjects forced labour, 
without respect to person ; men of subtle brain and ingenuity in their 
several vocations, to hewers of wood and ilrawers of water, were alike 
drafted (however much against their will) into this vast army of skilled 
humanity, impotent as slaves to withstand the will of this all-powerful 
descendant of the mighty Nimrod. It was so in ancient Egypt under 
the Amenamats, the great Thothmes, and the early Ramases; and we all 
know what Meneptha I., son of the mighty Sesostris, said to the Jews 
when in bondage and deprived of the means for making bricks—Ye are 
idle 1 Ye are idle ! 
Now I am going to ask you to try and carry your thoughts far away 
back over that vast bridge of time which unites to-day with twenty-five 
centuries ago—a bard task, I admit; nevertheless, let us make an effort. 
Judging from my own experience of the intense heat which usually 
prevails along the shore of El Hejaz and Yemen, from the Gulf of 
Acaba to the Straits of Babel Mandeb, I would suggest that we imagine 
ourselves in Babylon the Great on a fine October morning, waiting 
admission to the gardens of the palace. The entrance gates are of 
massive brass, and are opened and closBd by means of a machine, the 
mechanism of which I am unable to interpret. The stalwart Chaldean 
keeper of the gate, satisfied from our tablets that we are satraps of the 
great king from far distant provinces, desirous of rendering homage 
and becoming eye witnesses of his state and magnificent surroundings, 
admits u=. We pass the second and third walls which surround this royal 
compound, and then grze in admiration upon the enchanting vistas 
of superb arboriculture which can claim no equal in gardening record.s, 
except perhaps in such as characterise the subtle ingenuity of our 
modern horticulturists. But we may not linger, for through the long 
vistas of rich foliage we espy the glittering spears of the Chaldean 
sentries as they pace to and fro upon the terraces of this superb palace, 
whose verandahs, i)avilions, and terraces of granite, marble, porphyry, 
jale, and malachite, wrought as occasion required with rare and 
odoriferous wooils, scintillate in the bright Eastern sunlight. So- 
through long avenues of Palms, Cypresses, and Laurels (whose foliage 
effectually shelter us from tbe sun’s ray.s) we wend our way, charmed 
by the music of the thousand and one rivulets of water which irrigate 
the soil and freshen the atmosphere, by the melodious song of birds 
and the odour of exquisite perfumes. Arrived at the outer court of the 
Palace, we again establish our identity by the presentation of our 
tablets, but learning that the great king is sleeping off last night’s 
surfeit we are permitted by the courteous Chamberlain of his Majesty 
to wander through the fairy land which surrounds this unique pile. 
Through groves of Orange trees planted in straight lines we there¬ 
fore wend our way. Presently our path leads through alleys bordered 
with Roses, Violets, and other odoriferous flowers, then through avenues 
of the NaiTow-leavei Elm, now known as the English Elm,and supposed 
to be a native of the Holy Land. Here we espy the graceful gazelle, 
bounding along, and in an adjoining grove the lazyq inquis’tive-looking 
goat of Thibet disputes our right of passage, and presently espy a troop 
of agile monkey's, importations doubtless from India or Ethiopia. We 
now pass on through groves of Date Palms and Pomegranates, and then 
through enclosures planted with other Palms and Sycamores, containing 
large basins of porphyry where the Lotus grew, .and '.vhere, as in Egypt, 
j doubtless may have been seen the sacred ibis, the ichneumon ; and 
amid those clusters of Bamboo the terrible n.ajah, a leptile, which for 
