It is evident that the gardens of the Hebrews were in a very considerable degree devoted to the culture of medicinal herbs, the preparation of which in various ways was a matter of much solicitude with them (Jer. viii. 22). This is still the case in the East, where vegetable simples are as much employed in medicine as they were in this country in the times of Gerarde and Culpepper.
It would seem that the Jews were much in the habit of performing their devotions in gardens (Gen. xxiv. 63 ; Matt. xxvi. 36; John i. 48 ; xviii. 1, 2). This interesting practice, however, was idolatrously abused; for the worship of idols in these shady seclusions was not of unfrequent occurrence, and is often mentioned in Scripture (1 Kings xiv. 23 ; 2 Kings xvi. 4; xvii. 10 ; 2 Chron. xviii. 4; Is. lxv. 3 ; lxvi. ; Jer. ii. 20 ; iii. 6 ; Ezek. xx. 28).
The Jews, in their ceremonial treatises, have fre quent occasion to mention gardens, chiefly for the purpose of shewing what plants or seeds might or might not be planted or sown together under the law against heterogeneous propagations (Lev.
xix. 19 ; Dent. xxii. 9, 1). For that law various reasons have been given, on which we are not required to pronounce any judgment : but it appears to us that the economical grounds which may be collected from the effects which appear to result from the interdicted practices, are quite sufficient in themselves, whether others exist or not. Thus we find enumerated among the radical defects of Hindu husbandry—` the barbarous system of sowing two or three species of grain in one field . . . . The mode of reaping is equally defective; if two or three species of grain are sown in the same field, the Indian husbandman treads down a great part of his crop in order to collect each kind separately ; indeed, so fond is he of this method of proceeding that he pursues it even when the crop is all of one kind, that he may select what he deems the ripest ' (Tennant's Indian Recreations, in Editzb. Re7lie70.1V. 32o).
The gardens of the Holy Land have been men tioned by travellers in terms too vague and general to afford the basis of a satisfactory description. Dr. Olin seems to have paid most attention to them. Of the gardens near Shechera he says, Upon turning an angle in the steep gorge we found ourselves, as if by enchantment, in the midst of fruitful gardens, filled with vegetables, flowers, and fruit-trees, and all in the highest perfection of luxuriance and beauty. Olives, vines, acacias, pomegranates, figs, mulberries, and several species of trees which I did not recognise, are crowded together in small enclosures, forming an imper vious shade as well as an impenetrable thicket, and yet the capabilities of the soil seem not to be overburdened. Each separate tree and plant thrives to admiration, and seems rather to profit than suffer frorn the thick dark canopy of branches and foliage, which entirely excludes the sun's rays from the tangled huddle of trunks and roots. A beautiful mountain stream runs through the midst of this forest of gardens, in a channel mostly arti ficial and sometimes covered; but the water often rises into small fountains, and forms seveml cascades' (Travels in the East,ii. 35o). The orange and citron trees which abound in these gardens near Shechem (see Schubert, Reise ins Ilforgenlande, H. 116) were probably those not recognised by Dr. Olin, from their not being in fruit at the time of his visit.
The mural paintings of the ancient Egyptians afford us much information respecting their gardens and processes of gardening.. But the difference of
climate, soil, and produce, in Egypt and Palestine, was too material to justify us in expecting much information from this source respecting the gardens of the Hebrews. As, however, some notions on this head must have been common to both coun tries, we subjoin the observations of Mr. Wathen on the gardens of Egypt (Arts, etc., of Ancient Egypt, p. toS).
The ancient plans of gardens shew that the Egyptians were not less fond than our ancestors of mathematical figures, straight walks, architectural decorations, and vegetable avenues ; and that they as thoroughly entered into the idea of seclusion and safety suggested by enclosures within enclosures. It has been remarked that in some old English places there were almost as many walled compart ments without, as apartments within doors ; and the same may be said of Egyptian country-houses. This principle of seclusion, and an excessive love of uniform arrangement, are remarkably displayed in the plan of a large square garden given in Pro fessor Rosellini's great work (.1. Monunzenti dell' Egitto). Here— Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother, And half the platform just reflects the other.' The royal garden must have formed a most envi able retreat from the intolerable day' of an Egyp• tian summer. The whole was shut in by an em battled wall. On one side a canal runs along just without the walls. In the centre of the enclosure is an oblong walled vineyard ; the vines., planted in rows or avenues, are trailed above on trellis-work forming shady arched walks. The space on one side this central vineyard exactly corresponds tc that on the other. In each there is a row of palms, an oblong tank with water-fowl, four flower-beds on a lawn, and an open summer-house on the margin overlooking the pool ; an oblong walled compartment of trees ; a second tank with water fowl and flowers ; and all along within the wall of circuit a row of trees of three kinds in regular alter nations. At one end of the garden next the entrance is a building containing apparently one large room, perhaps for the royal entertainments ; at the other end or back is a house of three stories, which commanded a view of the whole. This garden, with its sheltered walks, its groves and tanks of water, its seclusion and privacy, reminds us of the fair garden' of Joacim at Babylon, with its baths, its deep shady coverts, and its privy gate,' in the apocryphal story of Susannah.
Obelisks and pylons, with flagstaffs and stream ers, seem to have been occasionally introduced as garden decorations. In the parched climate of Egypt a large supply of water is absolutely neces sary for a thriving vegetation ; hence tanks and canals form a chief feature in these villa scenes. With rows of palms laden with fruit on their mar gin, they recall Jeremiah's poetical comparison ot the man that trusteth in the Lord' to a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green ; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit,' contrasted with the man who trusteth in man,' who is like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilder. ness, in a salt land and not inhabited' (Jer. xvii. 5-S).'—J. K.