HORTUS

( κῆπος ), garden. Our knowledge of the horticulture of the Greeks is very limited. In fact the Greeks seem to have had no great taste for landscape beauties, and the small number of flowers with which they were acquainted afforded but little inducement to ornamental horticulture. At Athens the flowers most cultivated were probably those used for making garlands, such as violets and roses. In the time of the Ptolemies the art of gardening seems to have advanced in the favourable climate of Egypt so far, that a succe ion of flowers was obtained all the year round. The Romans, like the Greeks, laboured under the disadvantage of a very limited flora. This disadvantage they endeavoured to overcome, by arranging the materials they did po e in such a way as to produce a striking effect. We have a very full description of a Roman garden in a letter of the younger Pliny, in which he describes his Tuscan villa. In front of the porticus there was generally a xystus , or flat piece of ground, divided into flower-beds of different shapes by borders of box. There were also such flower-beds in other parts of the garden. Sometimes they were raised so as to form terraces, and their sloping sides planted with evergreens or creepers. The most striking features of a Roman garden were lines of large trees, among which the plane appears to have been a great favourite, planted in regular order; alleys or walks ( ambulationes ) formed by closely clipped hedges of box, yew, cypre , and other evergreens; beds of acanthus, rows of fruit-trees, especially of vines, with statues, pyramids, fountains, and summer-houses ( diaetae ). The trunks of the trees and the parts of the house or any other buildings which were visible from the garden, were often covered with ivy. In one respect the Roman taste differed most materially from that of the present day, namely, in their fondne for the ars topiaria , which consisted in tying, twisting, or cutting trees and shrubs (especially the box) into the figures of animals, ships, letters, . Their principal garden-flowers seem to have been violets and roses, and they also had the crocus, narci us, lily, gladiolus, iris, poppy, amaranth, and others. Conservatories and hot-houses are frequently mentioned by Martial. Flowers and plants were also kept in the central place of the peristyle [ Domus ], on the roofs and in the windows of houses. An ornamental garden was also called viridarium , and the gardener topiarius or viridarius . The common name for a gardener is villicus or cult or hortorum. IMG:6459379820872971714_ill208.jpg: Hortus, Garden. (From a Painting at Herculaneum.)