Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-21


In his Incompatible lines Milton has pic
tured Eve as the first gardener, going round
her happy Eden, tending tenderly the young
plants and giving them their names:
"oh flowers,
My early visitation, and my last
At even, which had bred up with tender hand
From the first opening bud, and gave ye names"
The sweet inheritance passed. with re-
newed world, to her descendants. Abraham
planted grove at Beersheba, Moses gave
precise directions for the management of
the vine. Solomon was wise in the lore of
the plants, but probably the first attempt
at real gardening to be recorded-the con-
version of treeless wastes into green pros
were so adept was NebuchadneZZar's
groves at Babylon, planted for his Median
queen.
Cyrus Planted Trees.
From the time of Mahabad the Persians
had gardens, told, and Sir Thomas
Browne assures us that Cyrus planted his
trees and vines in straight lines, parallel,
or crossing each other, in imitation of SOL
diers led the BATTLE according to Figuer-
roa. ambassador from Spain in 1917, the
royal gardens at ShiraZ had this same uni
formty in modern times. Uniformity in
planting was the first habit; it is the same
in India and further east on the map of
Asia. Homer in speaking of the gardens
OF Laertes, mentions the 'squadron'd vine
yards; and he also mentions the olive, fig,
and pendant pear, fruits which, not being
indigenous in Greece, show that the art of
gardening was already known and success
fully practiced.
Thoreau has well put II that husbandrv
among the venerable arts like hunting and
fishing, is as honorable and ancient trade
as the sun, and moon and winds pursue,
coeval with the faculties of man, and in
vented when these invented though
the poets would fain make them to have
been gradually learned and taught Ac-
cording to Gowar, Iadahel .'firste made
nette, and fishes Toxic" and Lydgate tells
us that AriSteuS-
''fonde first the usage
OF mylke, and cruddis and OF honey swote.''
Worlds Debt to Hebe.
Hebe, the wife of Bacchus, has the credit
of teaching the human race the method of
transplanting trees and making flower beds
If these are all ''dateless benefits which
have no record in our vulgar day they at
least point to the antiquity of the practice
of the arts. The Greeks were great lovers
of nature. The fair, clustering narcissus
and the crocus were among the glories of
Attica. and the culture of the violet was so
well understood that the Athenians were
able to bring them to market when snow
was lying on the ground. And roses were
the favorites then as now. Cleopatra is
y
to decorate her supper table.
Rose in the eastern idiom is, of course,
flower and many of flowers in which
the word rose occurs signify flower simply
as primrose, first flower, rosemary from
rosemarine. the flower of the sea; the
Christmas rose, which is simply the flower
of the season of Christmas. though Ger
arde describes it as 'rose-fashioned." The
Romans were devoteeS of the rose and all
flowers; indeed under Augustus. they car
ried their passion so far that sumptuary
laws had to be imposed.
Gardens of Nero.
In the gardens of Lucullus and Nero were
artificial hills and sheets of water (Bacon's
ideal garden would have, he tells US, "a
fair mount with three ascents and al
leys'D, and immense towers, rose gardens
and shaded walks between clipped trees
bordered with flowers and aromatic shrubs
This was, of course, very sumptuous but
may take it that every Roman garden would
have fruits and herbs and flowers. Virgil
says had he written of horticulture he
would not have omitted the narcissus. the
acanthus, the ivy, the myrtle and the rose
gardens of Paestum.
The fashion, which obtained down to
EliZabethan days, of clipping trees into ar
bitrary shapes, early asserted itself Cy-
press trees so treated appear in the paint
ings found at Herculaneum. Pliny. describ-
ing the garden at his Tuscan villa, speaks
of the box clipped into a thousand differ
ent FORMS and mentions the fountains and
alcoves Ornamental gardening received "A
crushing blow in the fall of the Roman en-
pire: horticulture scarce numbered a fol-
lower for many years, except in the clois-
tered repose of the monastery, where, in
deed acting on the precept of Mithridates
to cultivate medicinal plants. every thing
of use would certainly find place and the
gifts of wandering friars brought home.
like the saffron crocus, in the hollow of
staff. would add many a gem to the alb
bots garden.