The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-09-02
ANCIENT GARDENS.
Their Prevalence In Babylon POM
peil and Other Old Cflfps.

In Babylon a crowded city built on a
fiat plain, the queens had their gardens
in the air. hanging, or roof gardens.
whence they could look far away to the
distant sky line. Here rich and rare
blossoms grew and lovely foliage gave
shade, and a cooler air refreshed the brow
than that OF the heated streets far be-
low.
The rich also had high, terraced gar
dens, on land. and, sweetest Of all, float
ing gardens on the lakes. These were
made on RATS, and In the rich soil and
abundant moisture the flowers bloomed
maryellously, while in the waters another
garden-counterpart of the hrst-bloomed
in a fair shadow world. In such a gar
den as this one might have the enjoyment
OF movement, gliding slowly over the
waves, or rest at will, moored to the
bank.
Another fairylike garden was the de-
sert garden, in which the royal ladies
OF Persia and of Egypt delighted. Sur
rounded by burning sands, they yet con-
trived, by artificial means, to extend the
waters of some spring in an oasis and
rear beautiful Shrubs and a profusion of
flowers and tender grass, sprinkling the
air continually with fountains that laugh
ed and played in the sun. Think of the
delight of entering such a retreat after
a toilsome journey on cameFs back in
the hot glare and across the parched
sands of some desert route. In the great
tanks were cultivated aquatic plants, the
lotus, or water lily, of the Egyptian
River, with coiling stems and cool, veined
leaves.
The Romans and the Greeks delighted
IN gardens, and those of Pompeii, the
city destroyed SO many centuries ago by
a volcano, were very gay. The houses
were in perfect accord with the gar
dens, and opened upon them. The halls
almost seemed in imitation of a flower
bed, SO brilliant were the mosaic pic
lures on the floors. 1t is true, the walls
of the houses within We're black, but
this was only as a background to throw
into stronger relief the bright-colored
decorations upon them.
There were white tablets with inscrip-
tons, and there were pictures that told
some pleasing story-pictures of bright
n cheerful colors in which the red Gin
nabar predominated. The Pompeiians
loved red; they sometimes painted the
lower part of the columns in their grace
~ " POA sASCo ASos
leaving the upper part untouched. You
looked through the portico across hall and
parlor and perhaps picture room, all open
and CHEEKY, into the little garden Beyond,
with its trim flower beds, its little foun-
tain, its vases on pedestals and statutes
in the ~shrubbery.
Illusions and fanciful devices were in
great request. The garden walls were
tinted and painted in perspective, trees,
temples, ETC., to produce ar appearance
of more space than really existed. Bronze
boys with silver eyes and nymphs scat
tering wreaths were favorite ornaments.
Everything looked ready for a feast.
In Italy, during the fourteenth and tlf-
teenth centuries, and even later, the
greatest attention was bestowed on gar
dens. These were full of fountains n
little lakes, and winding walks and bor-
ders of flowers, of course, but their
special feature was the resemblance to
the old gardens of Rome. Their boun-
diaries We're marked by marble pillars
with a sculptured head of Hermes; under
the stately stone pines were little tenn
pies built in classic style, beside the
streams were grottos with statues of
water nymphs and deities, in the groves
you came suddenly upon a white marble
Pan with his pipes or Apollo and Diana
with their Observation-Disclosures Times.