Parr J,

Pliny’s Se; the Centre; ) toge- king to 1 all its tre, the ns and olished he mob corre- 30’ that for the la was lately Ss, but ppears Wal- ustace rman t day. of the 10Uses Wn to

cture, tions than

Boox I. GARDENS OF THE ROMANS. 13

most enthusiastic strains of admiration of all that is grand,

or romantic in landscape; and some of them, as Cicero and Juvenal, have

art in attempting to improve nature.“ Whoever,” says

G. Mason,“ would properly estimate the attachment to rural picturesque among the

heathen nations of old, should not confine their researches to the. domains of men, but extend them to the temples and altars, the caves and fountains dedicated to their deities.

These, with their concomitant groves, were generally favorite objects of visual pleasure, as well as of veneration.”(Essay on Design, p- 24,

vg considered as to the Culture of Flowers and Plants of

Ornament.

ns under the kings, and during the first ages of introduced, and finally prevailed to a great de- at that it was found necessary to suppress it by The use of crowns of flowers was forbid to such as had not received

by the eminence of their situation, or by the particular per- ds offenders did not hinder their

of natural scenery, and the pleasing, deprecated the efforts of

Sect. I]. Roman Gardenii

46. Flowers were rare in Roman garde the republic. But as luxury began to be gree, the passion for flowers became so gre sumptuary laws. the right to use them, either mission of the magistrates. Some acts of rigor towar' laws from being first eluded, and at last forgotten, till that which was originally a distinc- tion became at last a general ornament. Men the most elevated in dignity did not hesitate to set up that elegance of dress and of ornament which is repugnant to the idea of a war- like people; and Cicero, in his third harangue against Verres, reproaches this proconsul with having made the tour of Sicily in a litter, seated on roses, having a crown of flowers on his head, and a garland at his back.

47. The Floralia, or flower-feasts, were observed on the last four days of April; they were attended with great indecency, but they show that the common people also carried a taste for flowers to excess.(Pliny, xiii. 29.; Tertullian. Opera.)

48. The luxury of flowers under Augustus was carried to the extreme of folly. Helio- gabalus caused his beds, his apartments, and the porticoes of his palace to be strewed with

flowers. Among these, roses were the sort chiefly employed, the taste for that flower being supposed to be introduced from Egypt, where, as Athenzeus informs us, Cleopatra paid a talent for the roses expended at one supper; the floor of the apartment in which the entertainment was given, being strewed with them to the depth of a cubit. This, how= ever, is nothing to what Suetonius relates of Nero, who spent upwards of four millions of sesterces, or above thirty thousand pounds, at one supper, on these flowers. From Horace re cultivated in beds; and from Martial, who mentions roses out of season as one of the greatest luxuries of his time, it would appear that it was then the caprice, as at present, to procure them prematurely, or by retardation. Columella enume- rates the rose, the lily, the hyacinth, and the gilly-flower, as flowers which may embellish the kitchen-garden; and he mentions, in particular, a place set apart for the production of late roses. Pliny says, the method by which roses were produced prematurely was, by watering them with warm water when the bud began to appear. From Seneca and Martial it appears probable they were also forwarded by means of specularia, like certain culinary proauctions to be afterwards mentioned.

49. Scientific assemblages of plants, or botanic gardens, appear to have been unknown to the Romans, who had formed no regular system of nomenclature for the vegetable king- dom. Pliny informs us that Anthony Castor, one of the first physicians at Rome, had assembled a number of medical plants in his garden, but they were, in all probability, for the purposes of his profession. Between 200 and 300 plants are mentioned in Pliny’s History, as used in agriculture, gardens, medicine, for garlands, or other purposes, and these appear to be all that were known or had names in general use.(Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. xii.—xxvi. inclusive.)

it appears that roses we

Secr. III. Roman Gardening in respect to its Products for the Kitchen and the Dessert.

50. The term Hortus in the laws of the Decemviri, which are supposed to be as old as the establishment of the Romans as a people, is used to signify both a garden and a country-house, but afterwards the kitchen-garden was distinguished by the appellation Hortus Pinguis. Pliny informs us, that a husbandman called a kitchen-garden a second dessert, or a flitch of bacon, which was always ready to be cut; or a sallad, easy to be cooked and light of digestion, and judged there must be a bad housewife(the garden being her charge) in that house where the garden was in bad order.

51. The principal fruits introduced to Italy by the Romans, according to Hirschfield (Theorie des Jardins, vol.i. p.27.) and Sickler(Geschichte, 1 Band.), are the fig from Syria, the citron from Media, the peach from Persia, the pomegranate from Africa, the apricot from Epirus, apples, pears, and plums from Armenia, and cherries from Pontus. The rarity and beauty of these trees, he observes(Theorie des Jardins, vol.i. p.27.), joined to the delicious taste of their fruits, must have enchanted the Romans, especially on their first introduction, and rendered ravishing to the sight,