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6 INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY. whose abilities were superior to their own, caused that city to become the focus of literature and science; and the writings produced in that short space of time still remain the noblest monuments of the powers of the human mind, for they have commanded the admiration of succeeding ages, and left nothing for future writers to do but to imi- tate, as far as is possible, their excellencies. In the schools which were then established, that of the peripatetics, whose founder was Aristotle, was the one that, cultivating natural history, of course merits most notice in a history of botany. Aristotle, the son of a perfumer, who were in those days the dispensers of compound medicines prescribed by lay practitioners, had, from his well-merited reputation, beei^ and, on his raised to be the tutor of Alexander the Great ; pupil becoming possessed of the treasures collected by the Persian monarch, he formed the project, among other vast schemes of literary renown, of writing a complete history of natural substances from actual observation, or the relation of the numerous collectors which his influence over his former pupil enabled him to employ; and took the zoological and meteorological parts under his ov/n immediate care ; and his History of Animals, although little regarded in the schools engaged in teaching the elements of knowledge, is a splendid monument of his abilities. The mineralogical and botanical part of this general history of nature was entrusted to his pupil Theophrastus, who also succeeded to the professorial chair in the public school. A work of Theophrastus on minerals, and two on plants, have, descended to after a very narrow escape from oblivion, our times. He treats his subject generally in a philosophical manner. In his book on the causes of plants, he considered the propagation, culture, qualities, and uses of plants in general ; but very few are described by him in a particular manner, as he supposes the reader to be either acquainted with them, or to be informed by a master. In his larger work, entitled, the History of Plants, he mentions about five hundred plants, and begins with the organization, generation, and propagation of vegetables. In the third and fourth books he goes on to treat largely upon trees ; then follows his observations upon timber and choice of it. The sixth book is on shrubs, thorny plants, roses, and other ornamental plants usually cultivated in gardens. In the seventh he treats upon kitchen- garden plants, and those that grow wild. In the eighth upon grain of difierenl kiiid^, upon which he is very
INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY. 7 copious. The ninth and last book is upon gumsj exudations, and the me3,ns of obtaining them. It is much to be lamented, that neither Aristotle nor Theophrastus, whose mental abilities were of the first order, perceived the advantages that would accrue from a detailed description of natural substances, by which a student deprived of the viva voce instruction of a master might be enabled to reco^ise them. The next author that occurs is Dioscorides. As a physician, the object of Dioscorides being only the materia medica, he discusses each article used by medical practi- tioners in a separate chapter, and comprises the whole in five books ; in which, although the order is not very exactly kept, the vegetables are treated of as they are aromatic, alimentary, and medicinal. For the precedence of the aromatics two reasons may be given : one, the usual preference given to objects of luxury above those of use ; and the other, that the perfumers were the apothecaries of ancient times, and naturally affected those substances which formed the principal articles of their trade, especially when we consider the much greater use of perfumed oils and ointments by the ancients than by the moderns. His descriptions are chiefly respecting the colour, size, mode of growing as compared with other plants then well known, and therefore left undescribed. Thus he says : Hyssopus is well known to all ; and then having compared origanum to hyssop, he compares centaurium minus, tragoriganum, serpillum, marum, polycnemon, Symphytum petrgeum, ageratum, papaver erraticum, to origanum ; so that the knowledge of all these plants are made to depend upon that of hyssop. In like manner ocimum is made a type for the knowledge of the first sort of calamintha, acinum, ocimoides, crinum, solanuin, mercurialis, and heliotropium; although by the lapse of years, the ocimum of Dioscorides is now become uncertain, and of course the knowledge of the other plants is rendered unattainable. Although Columella and Cato among the Romans wrote on Husbandry, yet none of their works can be said to be botanical. Pliny the elder, who commanded the Roman fleet stationed in the Bay of Naples, and who perished in the year of Christ 71, in an attempt to explore an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, is the only author of that nation whose writings can be said to belong to the scope of our work. In his Flistorla Mundi, a vast encyclopaedia, scarcely less varied than the world itself, he has treated from the 12th
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INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY. 7<br />
copious. The ninth and last book is upon gumsj exudations,<br />
and the me3,ns of obtaining them. It is much to<br />
be lamented, that neither Aristotle nor Theophrastus,<br />
whose mental abilities were of the first order, perceived the<br />
advantages that would accrue from a detailed description<br />
of natural substances, by which a student deprived of the<br />
viva voce instruction of a master might be enabled to reco^ise<br />
them.<br />
The next author that occurs is Dioscorides. As a physician,<br />
the object of Dioscorides being only the materia<br />
medica, he discusses each article used by medical practi-<br />
tioners in a separate chapter, and comprises the whole in<br />
five books ; in which, although the order is not very exactly<br />
kept, the vegetables are treated of as they are aromatic,<br />
alimentary, and medicinal. For the precedence of the<br />
aromatics two reasons may be given : one, the usual preference<br />
given to objects of luxury above those of use ; and<br />
the other, that the perfumers were the apothecaries of<br />
ancient times, and naturally affected those substances which<br />
formed the principal articles of their trade, especially when<br />
we consider the much greater use of perfumed oils and<br />
ointments by the ancients than by the moderns. His descriptions<br />
are chiefly respecting the colour, size, mode of<br />
growing as compared with other plants then well known,<br />
and therefore left undescribed. Thus he says : Hyssopus<br />
is well known to all ; and then having compared origanum<br />
to hyssop, he compares centaurium minus, tragoriganum,<br />
serpillum, marum, polycnemon, Symphytum petrgeum,<br />
ageratum, papaver erraticum, to origanum ; so that the<br />
knowledge of all these plants are made to depend upon that<br />
of hyssop. In like manner ocimum is made a type for the<br />
knowledge of the first sort of calamintha, acinum, ocimoides,<br />
crinum, solanuin, mercurialis, and heliotropium;<br />
although by the lapse of years, the ocimum of Dioscorides<br />
is now become uncertain, and of course the knowledge of<br />
the other plants is rendered unattainable.<br />
Although Columella and Cato among the Romans wrote<br />
on Husbandry, yet none of their works can be said to be<br />
botanical. Pliny the elder, who commanded the Roman<br />
fleet stationed in the Bay of Naples, and who perished in<br />
the year of Christ 71, in an attempt to explore an eruption<br />
of Mount Vesuvius, is the only author of that nation whose<br />
writings can be said to belong to the scope of our work.<br />
In his Flistorla Mundi, a vast encyclopaedia, scarcely less<br />
varied than the world itself, he has treated from the 12th