6 HISTORY OF GARDENING. Parr f.
13. The existence of these gardens, however, is very problematical. Bryant(Ancient Mythology) gives his reasons for disbelieving the very existence of Queen Semiramis, who. Dr. Sickler Says, was not a queen, but a(beyschliferin n) concubine. Bryant acknowledges, however, that paradises of great extent, and placed in elevated situations, were with great probability ascribed to the ancient people called Semarim. Quintus Curtius(lib. xy. cap. 5.) calls these gardens“ fabulous wonders of the Greeks:”’ and Herodotus, who describes Babylon, is silent as to their existence. Many consider their description as representing a hill cut into terraces, and planted: and some modern travellers have fan- cied that they could discover traces of such awork. The value of such conjectures is left to be estimated by the antiquarian; we consider the description of this Babylonian garden as worth preserving for its grandeur and suitableness to the country and climate.
Sect. V. Persian Gardens. B. C. 500.
19. The Persian Kings were very fond of gardens, which, Xenophon says, were cultivated for the sake of beauty as well as fruit.“ Wherever the Persian king, Cyrus, resides, or whatever place he visits in his dominions, he takes care that the Paradises, shall be filled with every thing, both beautiful and useful, the soil can produce.”(Xen. Memorab. lib. v. p- 829.) The younger Cyrus was found by Ly- sander, as Plutarch informs us, in his garden or paradise at Sardis, and on its being praised by the Spartan general, he avowed that he had conceived, disposed and adjusted the whole himself, and planted a considerable number of trees with his own hands. Cyrus had another paradise at Celenz, which was very extensive, and abounded in wild beasts; and we are informed that the same prince“ there mustered the Grecian forces to the number of thirteen thousand.”(De Cyri Exped. lib. i.)
20. A paradise in the Island of Panchea, near the coast of Arabia, is described by Diodorus Siculus, as having been in a flourishing state in the time of Alexander’s immediate successors, or about B. C. 300, It belonged to a temple of Jupiter Try- philius, and had a copious fountain, which burst at once into a river, was cased with stone near half a mile, and was afterwards used for irrigation. It had the usual accom- paniments of groves, fruit-trees, thickets, and flowers.
21. The grove of Orontes in Syria, is mentioned by Strabo(lib. xvi.) as being in his time nine miles in circumference. It is described by Gibbon as« composed of laurels and cypress, which formed in the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable shade. A thousand streams of the purest water zssuing from every hill preserved the verdure of the earth, and the temperature of the air; the senses were gratified with harmonious sounds, and aromatic odours; and the peaceful grove was consecrated to health and joy, to luxury and love.”(Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xiii.)
22. In Persian gardens of a more limited description, according to Pliny and other Ro- man authors, the trees were arranged in straight lines and regular figures; and the Margins of the walks covered with tufts of roses, violets, and other odoriferous flowering plants, Among the trees, the terebinthinate sorts, the oriental plane, and, what may appear to us remarkable, the narrow-leaved elm,(now called English, but originally, as Dr. Walker and others consider, from the Holy Land), held conspicuous places, Buildings for repose, banqueting, voluptuous love; fountains for cooling the air, aviaries for choice birds, and towers for the sake of distant prospect, were introduced in the best examples.
Secr. VI. Grecian Gardens. B.C. 300.
23. The Greeks copied the gardening of the Persians, as they did their manners and architecture, as far as the difference of climate and state of society would admit. Xenophon, a Greek philosopher of the fourth century before Christ, admired the gardens of the Persian prince Cyrus, at Sardis; and Diogenes Laertius informs us that Epicurus delighted in the pleasures of the garden, and made choice of one as the spot where he taught his philosophy. Plato also lays the scene of his dialogue of beauty on the umbrageous banks of the river Ilissus. In the first eclogue of Theocritus, the scene is laid under the shade of a pine-tree, and the beauty of Helen is compared to that of a cypress ina garden. It would appear from this and other circumstances, that the love of terebinthinate trees, so general in Persia, and the other eastern countries, was also prevalent in Greece; and the same flowers(made choice of for their brilliant colors and odoriferous perfumes) appear to have been common to both countries. Among these may be enumerated the narcissus, violet, ivy, and rose.(Historical View,&c. p. 30. et seq.) There are many curious observations on this subject in Stackhouse’s edition of Theophrastus. Lord Bacon, in his Essay on Gardens, and G. Mason, already quoted, concur in considering gardening as rather a neglected art in Greece, notwithstanding the progress of the sister art of architecture, which gave rise to the remark of the former, “that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection.”
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