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CONTENTS.
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Title
Page
NOTE
PRELIMINARIES
6 SECTIONS [1]
[2] [3]
[4] [5]
[6]
THE
EVOLUTION OF HORTICULTURE
IN NEW ENGLAND:
I.–
THE
EARLIEST COLONIES IN
NEW ENGLAND
II.–
THE COLONIES OF
MASSACHUSETTS BAY
through page 105 of 180
I have posted what I have finished typing on this
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would prefer not to open the pages as this is a good example of how books used
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PRELIMINARIES. [3]
Constant use was also made of flowers and
ornamental shrubs in garlands and crowns which were worn upon the head in many
civil and religious ceremonies. Although our knowledge concerning their skill
and practical acquaintance with horticulture is imperfect, yet the disposition
of their gardens, orchards, and vineyards in the best ages of the nation, show a
most remarkable scientific advance in all that pertains to the art. Mr. St. John
in his admirable History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece,
draws “by the id of scattered hints, change expressions, fragments, and a
careful study of the natural and invariable productions of the country” a most
pleasing picture, of which a few paragraphs are given, that certainly both in
style and description serve as a model for imitation. “That portion of the
ground which was devoted to the culture of sweet-smelling shrubs and flowers
usually approached and projected inwards between the back wings of the house, so
that from the windows the eye might alight upon the rich and variegated tints of
the parterres intermingled with verdure, while the evening and morning breeze
wafted clouds of the fragrance into the apartments. The lawns, shrubberies,
bouquets, thickets, arcades, and avenues were, in most cases, laid out in a
picturesque though artificial manner, the principal object appearing to have
been to combine use with magnificence, and to enjoy all the blended hues and
odors which the plants and tree acclimated in Hellas could afford. Protection in
summer from the sun’s rays is, in those southern latitudes, an almost necessary
ingredient of pleasure, and therefore numerous trees rose here and there in the
ground in some places singly, elsewhere in clumps, uniting their branches above,
and affording a cool and dense shade. Beneath these umbrageous arches, the air
was further refrigerated by splashing fountains, whose waters, through numerous
fair channels, straight or winding, as the use of them demanded, spread
themselves over the whole garden, refreshing the eye and keeping up a perpetual
verdure. Copses of myrtles, of roses, of
agnus-castus, and other odoriferous shrubs intermingled, clustering round
a pomegranate tree, were usually placed on elevated spots, that, being thus
exposed to the winds, they might the more freely diffuse their sweetness. The
spaces between trees were sometimes planted with crocuses: and sometimes
presented a breadth of smooth, close, green sward, sprinkled with wild flowers,
as the violet and the blue veronica, the pink and the pale primrose, the golden
motherwort, the cowslip, the daisy, the pimpernel, and the periwinkle.
“In many gardens the custom was to plant each
kind of tree in separate groups, and each species of flower-bed also had, as now
in Holland, a distinct space assigned to it; so that there were beds of white
violets, of irises, of the golden cynosure, of hyacinths, of
ranunculuses, of the blue campanula, of
white gillyflowers, and the branchy asphodel.”
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