DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0031
4 History of Garden Art
we find hurdles, set up for hunting purposes, apparently only with the object of a battue.
Among the desert creatures we find stags, and this almost implies forest.
The establishment of large trees could only be aimed at in high places, or at the
edges of the valley where the waters of the stream did not reach during the inundations.
fig. i. a well-sweep in ancient egypt fig. 2. a well-sweep in modern egypt
It could only succeed from the very start through man's most diligent care. Watering
and the provision of nourishment for the land and its crops needed skill and artifice.
The waters of the Nile were brought to the higher and more distant parts of the country
by an elaborate network of canals, regulated by dams, terraces, and sluices, and were then
drawn up by the help of a well-sweep (shadoof or shaduf). On one arm of the pump-
handle hung a weight, on the other a bucket, and the water was poured out on plants,
trees, and fields. Just as we see it in pictures, thousands of years old, so can it be seen
now (Figs, i and 2). It is obvious that with so much labour entailed, only such trees and
plants would be considered as were found useful enough to repay a man for his trouble.
It was precisely from the profit-making care of plants that all horticulture arose. Edible
fruits, timber, and shade—these the Egyptian demanded and obtained from his garden.
Though it is only the New Period that has given us pictures of a systematic arrange-
ment and grouping of different plantations in one, that is, of enclosures which can be con-
sidered gardens in our sense, there is yet undoubted evidence in the Fourth and Fifth
Dynasties, and still more in the Middle Period, of plots laid out for trees, vines and
vegetables. These pictures show the indi-
vidual work of the garden. They show how
the gardener waters the land, how he plucks
the fruits from the trees, how he gathers the
ripe bunches of grapes, and how he pours
libations to the gods for a blessing on his
work.
First among the trees which belonged to
the earliest form of Egyptian garden is the
sycamore [Editor's Note: Or sycomore, for
doubtless the sycomore of Luke xix.4 is meant.
The "sycamore fig" is Ficus sykomoros. The
common foliage sycamore, or "false plane,"
is Acer Pseudo-platanus], It is very often
fig. 3. peasant doing honour to a sycomore tree mentioned, and in the old records the sign
we find hurdles, set up for hunting purposes, apparently only with the object of a battue.
Among the desert creatures we find stags, and this almost implies forest.
The establishment of large trees could only be aimed at in high places, or at the
edges of the valley where the waters of the stream did not reach during the inundations.
fig. i. a well-sweep in ancient egypt fig. 2. a well-sweep in modern egypt
It could only succeed from the very start through man's most diligent care. Watering
and the provision of nourishment for the land and its crops needed skill and artifice.
The waters of the Nile were brought to the higher and more distant parts of the country
by an elaborate network of canals, regulated by dams, terraces, and sluices, and were then
drawn up by the help of a well-sweep (shadoof or shaduf). On one arm of the pump-
handle hung a weight, on the other a bucket, and the water was poured out on plants,
trees, and fields. Just as we see it in pictures, thousands of years old, so can it be seen
now (Figs, i and 2). It is obvious that with so much labour entailed, only such trees and
plants would be considered as were found useful enough to repay a man for his trouble.
It was precisely from the profit-making care of plants that all horticulture arose. Edible
fruits, timber, and shade—these the Egyptian demanded and obtained from his garden.
Though it is only the New Period that has given us pictures of a systematic arrange-
ment and grouping of different plantations in one, that is, of enclosures which can be con-
sidered gardens in our sense, there is yet undoubted evidence in the Fourth and Fifth
Dynasties, and still more in the Middle Period, of plots laid out for trees, vines and
vegetables. These pictures show the indi-
vidual work of the garden. They show how
the gardener waters the land, how he plucks
the fruits from the trees, how he gathers the
ripe bunches of grapes, and how he pours
libations to the gods for a blessing on his
work.
First among the trees which belonged to
the earliest form of Egyptian garden is the
sycamore [Editor's Note: Or sycomore, for
doubtless the sycomore of Luke xix.4 is meant.
The "sycamore fig" is Ficus sykomoros. The
common foliage sycamore, or "false plane,"
is Acer Pseudo-platanus], It is very often
fig. 3. peasant doing honour to a sycomore tree mentioned, and in the old records the sign