The plant known to us by the name of “radicula,”[909] is the second of these productions. It furnishes a juice that is extensively employed in washing wool, and it is quite wonderful how greatly it contributes to the whiteness and softness of wool. It may be produced anywhere by cultivation, but that which grows spontaneously in Asia and Syria,[910] upon rugged, rocky sites, is more highly esteemed. That, however, which is found beyond the Euphrates has the highest repute of all. The stalk of it is ferulaceous[911] and thin, and is sought by the inhabitants of those countries as an article of food. It is employed also for making unguents, being boiled up with the other ingredients, whatever they may happen to be. In leaf it strongly resembles the olive. The Greeks have given it the name of “struthion.” It blossoms in summer, and is agreeable to the sight, but entirely destitute of smell. It is somewhat thorny, and has a stalk covered with down. It has an extremely diminutive seed, and a large root, which is cut up and employed for the purposes already mentioned. CHAP. 19. (4.)—THE PLEASURES OF THE GARDEN. Having made mention of these productions, it now remains for us to return to the cultivation of the garden,[912] a subject recommended by its own intrinsic merits to our notice: for we find that in remote antiquity, even, there was nothing looked upon with a greater degree of admiration than the gardens of the Hesperides,[913] those of the kings Adonis[914] and Alcinoüs,[915] and the Hanging Gardens, whether they were the work of Semiramis, or whether of Cyrus, king of Assyria, a subject of which we shall have to speak in another work.[916] The kings of Rome cultivated their gardens with their own hands; indeed, it was from his garden that Tarquinius Superbus[917] sent to his son that cruel and sanguinary message of his. In our laws of the Twelve Tables, we find the word “villa,” or “farm,” nowhere mentioned; it is the word “hortus” that is always used with that signification, while the term “heredium” we find employed for “garden.” There are certain religious impressions, too, that have been attached to this species of property,[918] and we find that it is in the garden and the Forum only that statues of satyrs are consecrated, as a protection against the evil effects[919] of spells and sorcery; although in Plautus, we find the gardens spoken of as being under the tutelage of Venus. At the present day, under the general name of gardens,[920] we have pleasure-grounds situate in the very heart of the City, as well as extensive fields and villas.