Lectures on Roman husbandry, delivered before the University of Oxford; comprehending such an account of the system of agriculture, the treatment of domestic animals, the horticulture &c., pursued in ancient times, as may be collected from the Scriptores rei rusticae, the Georgics of Virgil, and other classical authorities, with notices of the plants mentioned in Columella and Virgil; . but a slight insight into Roman gar-dening, the descriptive part being very meagre,and the number of plants enumerated falling con-siderably short of a hundred. We must thereforedraw largely from other sources,
Lectures on Roman husbandry, delivered before the University of Oxford; comprehending such an account of the system of agriculture, the treatment of domestic animals, the horticulture &c., pursued in ancient times, as may be collected from the Scriptores rei rusticae, the Georgics of Virgil, and other classical authorities, with notices of the plants mentioned in Columella and Virgil; . but a slight insight into Roman gar-dening, the descriptive part being very meagre,and the number of plants enumerated falling con-siderably short of a hundred. We must thereforedraw largely from other sources, and especiallyfrom Pliny, whose notices of the plants known atthat period are far more extensive than thosewhich Columella has given us. In the earliest periods of Roman history everyfamily had its garden, and, as little animal foodwas consumed, it was from this source that thepopulation principally drew its subsistence. Hence in the laws of the Twelve Tables, theterm hortus is synonymous to heredium or in-heritance; and the word villa is nowhere madeuse of. As a proof indeed of the honour paid togardens by the old Romans, Pliny remarks, thatmen of the highest rank were willing to borrowtheir names from its contents, as in the Valerianfamily, where the Lactucarii did not think them-selves disgraced by taking their names from theLettuce. These however were mere kitchen gardens,. ] ROMAN HUSBANDRY. 213 containing such plants and trees alone as weresubservient to the daily uses of life; and in Catoswork, the only notice we have of a garden is ofthis description, although it be true, that, accord-ing to Pliny, he recommended that plants whichcould be used for chaplets should be likewisecultivated in it. In proportion however as civilisation and wealthincreased, a taste for ornamental plants becameprevalent; and even in Rome itself, as we are in-formed by Pliny, it was the fashion of the day,among the lower classes, to have little gardens inthe front of their houses, until
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
