That portion of the ground[1243] which was devoted to the culture of sweet-smelling shrubs and flowers, usually approached and projected inwards between the back wings of the house, so that from the windows the eye might alight upon the rich and variegated tints of the parterres[1244] intermingled with verdure, while the evening and morning breeze wafted clouds of fragrance into the apartments.[1245] The lawns, shrubberies, bosquets, thickets, arcades, and avenues, were, in most cases, laid out in a picturesque though artificial manner, the principal object appearing to have been to combine use with magnificence, and to enjoy all the blended hues and odours which the plants and trees acclimated in Hellas could afford. Protection, in summer, from the sun’s rays, is, in those southern latitudes, an almost necessary ingredient of pleasure, and, therefore, numerous trees, as the cedar,[1246] the cypress, the black and white poplar,[1247] the ash, the linden, the elm, and the platane, rose here and there in the grounds, in some places singly, elsewhere in clumps, uniting their branches above, and affording a cool and dense shade. Beneath these umbrageous arches the air was further refrigerated by splashing fountains,[1248] whose waters, through numerous fair channels, straight or winding, as the use demanded of them required,[1249] spread themselves over the whole garden, refreshing the eye and keeping up a perpetual verdure. Copses of myrtles, of roses, of agnus-castus,[1250] and other odoriferous shrubs intermingled, clustering round a pomegranate-tree, were usually placed on elevated spots,[1251] that, being thus exposed to the winds, they might the more freely diffuse their sweetness. The spaces between trees were sometimes planted with roses,[1252] and lilies, and violets, and golden crocuses;[1253] and sometimes presented a breadth of smooth, close, green sward, sprinkled with wild-flowers, as the violet and the blue veronica,[1254] the pink, and the pale primrose, the golden motherwort, the cowslip, the daisy, the pimpernel, and the periwinkle. In many gardens the custom was, to plant each kind of tree in separate groups, and each species of flower-bed also had, as now in Holland,[1255] a distinct space assigned to it; so that there were beds of white violets,[1256] of irises, of the golden cynosure,[1257] of hyacinths, of ranunculuses, of the blue campanula, or Canterbury bells, of white gilliflowers, carnations, and the branchy asphodel. ----- Footnote 1243: Here sometimes were grown both vegetables, as lettuces, radishes, parsley, &c., and flowering shrubs, as the wild or rose-laurel, which was supposed to be a deadly poison to horses and asses. Lucian. Luc. siv. Asin. § 17. Footnote 1244: Luc. Piscat. § 6. Footnote 1245: Geop. x. 1. 1. xii. 2. Footnote 1246: The cedar still grows wild on the promontory of Sunium. Chandler, ii. 8. Footnote 1247: Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. pl. 4. Footnote 1248: