158 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ ArgHst 20 , 189K 
summer it is the turn of the Ten-week and other Stocks of all colouis, 
Asters, double Picotees, Larkspurs, and Lupins, Sweet Peas, and the 
Gladiolus, which, with the Dahlias, prolong the floweriDg period until 
frosts set in, and combining with the Chrysanthemums, which become 
more abundant, remain almost alone to keep company with the first 
Wallflowers and first Violets. It is by no means easy to value, even in 
an approximate way, the business of the street merchants, but one thing 
of which we may be certain is that the traffic is reduced by at least 
one-half during the spells of cold weather. 
Between the street vendors and the florists having a shop come the 
occupants of the kiosks and barracks established in several points of 
Paris, and particularly around the churches. Being on an average better 
provided than the street hawkers, and selling pot plants, which the 
latter do not, these kiosk-keepers nevertheless run after common and cheap 
goods. White Stocks, Tree Marguerites, Richardia aethiopica, Deutzias, 
and white Dahlias are the favourite flowers. The business is most brisk 
during the “mois de Marie ” (May) and near the great festivals. Those 
which in Paris give the greatest impetus to the flower traffic are, pro¬ 
ceeding in order of date, St. Josephus, 19th March ; St. John, 24th June; 
St. Peter and St. Paul, 29th June; St. Vincent, 19th July; St. Ann, 
26th July ; Assumption, 15th August; St. Louis, 25th August; St. 
Augustin, 28th August; St. Charles, 4th November. When the festivals 
do not correspond with the authorised maiket days exceptional markets 
are held on their eve at the “Quaiaux Fleurs.” We must also mention 
here the merchants established near the cemeteries, and which are most 
numerous towards All Saints’ day.—E ug. Schaettel. 
(To be continued.) 
HORTICULTURE AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 
In the search for records of work in far past times I have found much 
of interest to me, and it may possibly be of interest to others. To 
go no further back, the Chinese, Japanese, Chaldeans, Egyptians, and 
Phoenicians held husbandry in high esteem, but a great deal relating to 
the two former is mythological, though they early practised the art of 
stirring the soil, economising manures, and applying them in the form 
best calculated to nourish and bring the crop to maturity, and displayed 
unwearied industry in eradicating weeds, yet it is a mistake to set them 
down as adepts at husbandry. They were slavish followers of routine, 
absolutely refusing to profit by the advanced views of contemporaries 
in other countries. The rich alluvial plains of China may account for 
their wishing nothing better than the rudest implements. The historic 
horticulture of China is alleged to date 2C00 or 3000 years before Christ, 
but the Chow dynasty was founded by Woo-wang, about 1100 B c., and 
of their gardening little was known until recent years beyond fable. 
The Japanese have made rapid strides in “ latter times.” 
Babylon was famous for its hanging gardens, and amongst the most 
ancient of the earth, having attained to a certain degree of scientific 
cultivation 2000 B.c. Of Nineveh, founded 2347 B.C., absolutely nothing 
is known of its gardening. The Greeks took up the arts of the Assyrians 
on their decadence. The Egyptians early grew Beans, Leeks, Garlic, 
Onions, and Cucumbers. When Abraham entered the Delta from 
Canaan, about 1600 to 1700 B.C., they had long enjoyed the advantage 
of a settled government, and become great in pyramids, dating 2500— 
2000 B.C., if not in gardening, for which it does not appear they were at 
any time famous, therefore we must concede the Egyptians to agricul¬ 
turists. Diodorus Siculus, who wrote in the time of Julius Caesar and 
Augustus, states that they were acquainted with the importance of a 
rotation of crops, their adaptation to soils, and tethered cattle on green 
Clover, feeding them on hay during the inundations of the Nile. 
Phoenicia was renowned for its fertile soil and producing fruit— 
Almonds, Apricots, Bananas, Citrons, Figs, Grapes, Olives, Peaches, 
Pomegranates, and Sugar-cane, with “ordinary fruit” (whatever that 
may have been). Carthage was founded between 800 and 900 B.C., but 
some place it as early as 1200 B.c. The Carthaginians were foremost in 
agriculture of their times. Mago, one of their greatest generals, wrote 
twenty-eight books on farming, which Columella states were translated 
into Latin by express decree of the Roman Senate. Columella lived 
about the middle of the first century, wrote twelve books on practical 
agriculture, one on gardening in verse (“ De Re Rustica”), and another 
book on the cultivation of trees. He was born at Cadiz, in Spain, there¬ 
fore had his tuition from the Phoenicians or second-hand from the Car¬ 
thaginian Mago. What the Phoenicians left behind in Cornwall in lieu 
of tin is not known, but they could hardly fail to have an effect in their 
intercourse with our island inhabitants and its gardening of a beneficial 
character. 
Damascus, supposed to be the most ancient city in the world, was in 
all times famed for its gardens, and now the plain on which it stands is 
covered with the most “ beautiful gardens and orchards, irrigated by the 
limpid waters of the Barrada, forming a waving grove of more than 
fifty mile3 in circuit, rich in the most luxuriant foliage and the finest 
fruits, including Oranges, Lemons, Citrons, Pomegranates, Mulberries, 
Figs, Plums, Walnuts, Pears, Apples, &c.” Its soil is of remarkable 
fertility. Syria early became part of the Assyrian empire, passed to the 
Persians under Cyrus, and the Greeks under Alexander, the gardening 
of which we shall presently note. 
Abraham was no gardener, nor were the Israelites in any sense 
horticulturists, for their life was nomadic up to the going down into 
EgypL from which people they derived the art of gardening, hence 
their hankering after its Cucumbers. After possession of Canaan their 
delight seems to have been in fields and vineyards, none of their cities 
being famous for gardens. Jerusalem, if identical with Salem, must 
have existed 2000 B.C., but it is not known by its own name until 
1500 B.c. Its strata are limestone, thin of soil, therefore, not suited for 
horticulture, yet the Olive thrives well, and there were ornamental if 
not useful gardens in the time of Solomon, but these appear to have 
been an Egyptian innovation, made to delight Pharoah’s daughters. 
Indeed, Solomon’s writings are confined to the ornamental aspect of 
gardening, and this seems to have been the extent of Israelitic horti¬ 
culture. The Hebrews were a pastoral nation—shepherds, herdsmen, 
lovers of milk and honey, corn and wine, hence the frequent reference 
in the Scriptures to vineyards. 
Passing to the Greeks we find the greatest of epic poets—Homer, 
1184-684 (a difference of 500 years) B.C., in vivid and picturesque 
descriptions singing the praises of the palace gardens of Alcinous and 
those of the cottage of Laertes. Homer is supposed to have been a 
native of some place on the seaboard of Asia Minor ; his gardening, there¬ 
fore, would combine that of the Chaldean, Egyptian, and Phoenician, 
hence the truth and wisdom—the living picture of Nature so unique in 
Homer and in Shakespeare. 
Hesiod, a native of Cyme, HEolia, a province of Asia Minor, settled 
when a boy in Asera, a village of Boeoti3, at the foot of Mount Helicon, 
but spent the latter part of his life at Socris. Herodotus calls him the 
contemporary of Homer, living 400 years before himself, about 900 B.C.; 
but Hesiod is supposed to have lived about 735 B.c. He and his brother 
Perses resided with their father at Asera, engaged in cultivating tha 
soil and tending cattle. After the death of their parent the estate was 
divided, but Hesiod was deprived of half his share by his avaricious and 
prodigal brother, aided by unjust judges. Nevertheless, Hesiod care¬ 
fully husbanded what remained to him, and seems to have been a suc¬ 
cessful cultivator of the soil and economist. Perses wasted his estate 
by neglect and indolence ; labour-starved land did not pay in Hesiod’a 
time. Hesiod wrote a poem entitled “ Works and Days,” so denomi¬ 
nated because husbandry requires exact observances of times and seasons. 
He mentions a plough consisting of three parts, the share-beam, draught- 
pole, and plough-tail ; also a cart with low wheels, and ten spans (7 feet 
6 inches) in width ; a rake, sickle, and ox goad. The ground received 
three ploughings—one in autumn, another in spring, and a third before 
sowing the seed. Manures were applied and ploughed in. 
Lessons of wisdom appear to have been taught by the seven wise 
men of Greece—Periander, Pittacus, Thales, Solon, Bias, Chilo, and 
Cleobulus, the title acquired by mature experience, practical skill in 
business, and the arts. The poetic, by the spirit of inquiry, passes into 
the scientific period, presents us with Herodotus, father of history, the 
recorder of facts. He was born at Halicarnassus, in Caria, 484 B.c. 
Egypt early engaged his attention, from which he collected a mass of 
information. Babylon, still flourishing, was visited, and he states him¬ 
self that he resided at Tyre. Thus the richest stores of knowledge w r as- 
gathered from Egyptian, Chaldean, and Phoenician sources, for Hero¬ 
dotus not only described the places seen in his travels, but investigated 
the productions of the soil. 
Socrates (469-399 b.c.) must be named for giving Greek philosophy 
a practical direction, and one of his scholars, Xenophon, born at Athens 
aoout 445 B.C., wrote on agriculture. Plato, another disciple of Socrates, 
was born at Athens or in the island of iEgina, probably on 27th May, 430 
or 427 B.C., and about 389 or 388 began to teach in the gymnasium of 
the Academy and in his own gardens at Colonus, the inner circle of his- 
disciples assembling at simple meals in his garden. He died 347 b c.,. 
and by his will his garden remained the property of his school. 
Aristotle was born in 384 b.c., at Stagira, a seaport of Chalcidic?, 
a southern province of Macedonia. His father, Nicomachus, was 
physician to Amyntas II., king of Macedonia ; but the family was not 
Macedonian, for Aristotle claimed to be descended from iEsculapius, 
therefore of the race of Asclepiadm, whose hereditary profession was- 
that of physicians. Aristotle established his school in the Lyceum, a 
gymnasium attached to the temple of Apollo Lyceius at Athens, and his 
lectures were delivered in the wooded walks of the Lyceum. Pleasure 
gardens or recreation grounds were an institution of Greece. 
Theophrastus, a disciple of Plato and Aristotle, was born early in the 
fourth century, B.C., at Eresus, in the island of Lebos. Two thousand 
students attended his lectures, kings and princes solicited his friendship, 
Cassande, sovereign of Macedon, and Ptolemy Lagos, king of Egypt, 
treating him handsomely. Two entire works of his on botany are pre¬ 
served to us, and he mentions six different kinds of manures, and adds- 
that a mixture of soil produces the same effects as manures. Clay, he 
observes, should be mixed with sand, and sand with clay. He died in 
287 b.c,, some accounts giving his age at eighty-five, others 106 or 107 
years. 
Epicurus, the founder of the Epicurean system, was born in the- 
island of Samos, 342 b.c. In 306 B.c. the philosophical school of 
Epicurus was established, he having purchased a garden in a favour¬ 
able situation, where he spent the remainder of his life in simplicity 
and temperance, dying, aged seventy-two, 270 b.c. Thus the Greeks 
combined learning, art, and science with gardening. They were not to 
the “ manner born,” but they had a poor soil to deal with, and 
derived their ideas of cultivation from the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and 
Phoenicians. 
In passing to the Romans we must observe that Greek colonies had 
been formed in the Roman peninsula, and the ancient Romans had the 
advantage of their and Carthaginian experience. 
Cato, the Censor, was born 234 B.C., at Tusculum,. cailtivated a 
