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CONTENTS.
_______
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
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PRELIMINARIES. [4]
The Romans practiced very much the same course
in horticulture as did the Grecians, and for our knowledge upon this point we
are indebted to Cato,
Varro, Palladius, Tacitus,
Virgil, Columella, Martial, the younger Pliny, and others. According to
Cato, many of the wealthy had their vegetable gardens in the neighborhood of
Rome, from which they received their supplies of this nature, which were
abundant and of excellent quality. Cato enumerates many of these vegetables
which are familiarily known to us, and gives advice as to their proper
cultivation. Especially is this the case with asparagus, for which he gives full
directions for the formation of the bed, the proper distance between the plants,
the time and mode of weeding and of “plucking.” Nearly all, especially the later
writers, Columella, Varro, and Virgil, also make mention of the more common
vegetables, among which lettuce, beets, peas, beans, carrots, parsnips, onions,
parsley, and cucumbers are conspicuous. Both Cato and
Palladius give advice as to the proper
situation of a garden, which should have a southern aspect, and be amply
supplied with water. In the earlier ears of the nation, the vegetable and fruit
gardens were confined within a single enclosure, and it was not until the time
of the younger Pliny, that separation of the two was effected. To the fruit
garden or orchard the Romans were particularly devoted, an cultivated not only
the indigenous fruits, but soon introduced many from foreign regions, as the
cherry from Pontus, the fig and almond from Syria, and the various “mala,”
comprehending apples, pears, pomegranates, quinces, and oranges from different
parts of Asia.
Cato gives many varieties of the different
fruits, especially of the vine, and directions for their proper management, as
also for grafting, budding, and pruning.
The culture of flowers among the Romans, as
among the Grecians, was at first confined to the enclosure which contained the
vegetables and fruits. As wealth increased, however, and the people became more
refined, the residences in the suburbs of Rome were judged suitable only for
farming purposes, and their owners erected costly villas more remote, in
connection with which were the pleasure grounds, containing all that pertained
to embellishment; as flower-beds, walks, statuary, fountains, shrubbery, and
various shade trees. The accounts which have come down to us of the magnificence
of these villas and their pleasure grounds both within and without the city seem
almost incredible. Among these may be mentioned those of Cicero, Sallust, and
Lucullus. Plutarch thus speaks of the Lucullian gardens: “I give no higher name
to his sumptuous buildings, porticos and baths, still less to his paintings and
sculptures, and all his industry about those curiosities, which he collected
with vast expense, lavishly bestowing all the wealth and treasure which he got
in the war upon them, insomuch that even now, with all the advance of luxury,
the
Lucullian gardens are counted the
noblest the emperor has.
Tubero the
stoic, when he saw his buildings at Naples, where he suspended the hills upon
vast tunnels, brought in the sea for moats and fish-ponds round his house, and
built pleasure-houses in the waters, called him Xerxes in a gown. He had also
fine seats in
Tusculum, belvederes, and
large open balconies for men’s apartments, and porticos to walk in, where
Pompey, coming to see him, blamed him for making a house which would be pleasant
in summer but uninhabitable in winter; whom he answered with a smile: ‘You think
me, then, less provident than cranes and storks, not to change my home with the
season.’”
The description of the Roman gardens by Pliny
the younger should not be overlooked. In their situation and adornment they
equaled and even excelled those of any nation in modern days. In a letter to a
friend he describes the characteristics of the gardens attached to his Tuscan
villa, which were those that strongly marked the art at the time, and which
continued for centuries. The excavations at Herculaneum have revealed to us, by
means of the paintings there discovered, the appearance that the gardens of the
townsmen presented. These, although small and hedged about in various ways, were
adorned according to the prevailing taste with urns, fountains, statues, etc.,
while at the windows of the houses were boxes and pots of flowers.
Our knowledge of the variety of flowers
recognized or cultivated by the Romans is meager.
Livy, in describing the garden of
Tarquin the Proud, as it existed two
hundred years after the foundation of Rome, speaks of beds of roses, lilies,
poppies, and various sweet-smelling herbs.
Virgil, in his fourth Georgic, most
charmingly introduces, in his gracefully measured verses, his old friend
Corycius at work in his garden
cultivating the roses which bore their blossoms twice in a year, the narcissus,
white lilies, poppies, the savory and flowering herbs, — and these too upon land
unfitted for other purposes, thus showing to his countrymen how much happiness
could be derived from humble source.
“’T is great pity the haste, which Virgil seems
here to have been in, should have hindered him from entering farther into the
account or instructions of gardening, which he said he could have given, and
which he seems to have esteemed and loved, by that admirable picture of the old
man’s felicity, which he draws, like so great a master, with one stroke of a
pencil, in those four words:
Regum æquabat
opes animis. That in the midst of those small possessions, upon a few
acres of wealth and opulence of kings, in the case, content, and freedom of his
mind.”
At the invasion of Britain by the Romans, it
has been stated that the inhabitants of that country, depending chiefly upon the
chase and the herds which they raised, cultivated no cereals. This, however, is
an error, if we may judge from the descriptions given of them and their
contemporaries, the Gallic nation, by Pliny. As to their horticulture, our
knowledge is imperfect, but we may infer from the fact that certain plants were
cultivated by the Druids for their medicinal qualities, that the art of
gardening, to a certain extent, was very early practiced.
Strabo1 informs us that the Southern
Britons had gardens immediately about their houses, combining both vegetable and
orchard departments. Certain fruits, especially apples, were known to the
Britons, while others, especially the vine, were introduced by the Romans. In
regard to flowers, it is probable that several, previously unknown to the
Britons, were introduced by their conquerors. Among these were the rose and the
violet. The same may be said in relation to many vegetables.
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