The Greeks placed much of their happiness in spots like those we have been describing, as may be inferred from such of their fabulous traditions,[1359] as relate to the garden of the Hesperides,[1360] the gardens of Midas, with their magnificent roses, and those of Alcinoös,[1361] which still shed their fragrance over the pages of the Odyssey. From the East, no doubt, they obtained, along with their noblest fruit-trees, the art of cultivating them, and, perhaps, that sacred tradition of the Garden of Eden, preserved in the Scriptures, formed the basis of many a Hellenic legend.[1362] The Syrians acquired much celebrity among the ancients for their knowledge of gardening, in which, according to modern travellers, they still excel. Of the manner of cultivating fruit-trees in the earlier ages very little is known. No doubt they soon discovered that some will thrive better in certain soils and situations than in others, and profited by the discovery; but the art of properly training and grafting trees is comparatively modern.[1363] ----- Footnote 1359: Eudoc. Ionia. 434. Footnote 1360: Plin. xix. 19. Athen. xi. 39. Footnote 1361: Bœttig. Fragm. sur les Jar. des Anciens, in Magaz. Encycloped. Ann. vii. t. i. p. 337. Cardinal Quirini, Primordia Corcyræ, c. vii. p. 60, sqq. Footnote 1362: See in Xenophon a brief description of the gardens of Cyrus. Œconom. iv. 21. Upon this passage our countryman, Sir Thomas Browne, has written an elaborate treatise. Footnote 1363: On the various methods of propagating trees see Theophrast. Hist. Plant. ii. 1. 2. -----