A History of Agriculture in India v2.c53.s8.3

v2.c53.s8.3

What were the plants grown by the Arabs in their gardens in Spain? What the Arab gardeners regarded as correct rules for planting, and some of the garden plants which they favoured, says Hyams, can be gathered from an authoritative twelfth-century work on agriculture and horticulture written by Yahyā ibn Muhammad (Abū Zakarīyā). ‘Abū Zakarīyā says that all garden doorways should be framed by clipped evergreens, that cypresses should be used to line paths and grouped to mark the junctions of paths. He objects to the mixing of evergreen with deciduous trees. He liked to see canals and pools shaded by trees or bowers, to prevent excessive loss of water through evaporation. Plants named in his text include lemon and orange trees, pines and most of our common deciduous trees, cypresses, oleander, myrtle and rose as the only flowering shrubs, violets, lavender, balm, mint, thyme, marjoram, iris, mallow, box and bay laurel. He lays much stress on aromatics, as, indeed, did all the Islamic gardeners. His climbing plants are vines, jasmines and ivy.'³