360 IL1STOHY OF BOTANY . 



Natural History which treats of the medicinal virtues of plants, he 

 says, 8 "Antiquity was so much struck with the' properties of herbs, that 

 it affirmed things incredible. Xanthus, the historian, says, that a 

 man killed by a dragon, will be restored to life by an herb which he 

 calls balin and that Thylo, when killed by a dragon, was recovered 

 by the same plant. Democritus asserted, and Theophrastus believed, 

 that there was an herb, at the touch of which, the wedge which the 

 woodman had driven into a tree would leap out again. Though we 

 cannot credit these stories, most persons believe that almost anything 

 might be effected by means of herbs, if their virtues were fully known." 

 How far from a reasonable estimate of the reality of such virtues were 

 the persons who entertained this belief, we may judge from the many 

 superstitious observances which they associated with the gathering and 

 using of medicinal plants. Theophrastus speaks of these ;' " The drug- 

 sellers and the rhizotomists (root-cutters) tell us," he says, "some things 

 which may be true, but other things which are merely solemn quackery ;' 

 thus they direct us to gather some plants, standing from the wind, and 

 with our bodies anointed ; some by night, some by day, some before 

 the sun falls on them. So far there may be something in their rules. 

 But others are too fantastical and far fetched. It is, perhaps, not 

 absurd to use a prayer in plucking a plant ; but they go further than 

 this. We are to draw a sword three times round the rnandragora, and 

 to cut it looking to the west : again, to dance round it, and to use 

 obscene language, as they say those who sow cumin should utter blas- 

 phemies. Again, we are to draw a line round the black hellebore, 

 standing to the east and praying ; and to avoid an eagle either on the 

 right or on the left ; for, say they, ' if an eagle be near, the cutter will 

 die in a year.' r 



This extract may serve to show the extent to which these imagina- 

 tions were prevalent, and the manner in which they were looked upon 

 by Theophrastus, our first great botanical author. And we may now 

 consider that we have given sufficient attention to these fables and 

 superstitions, which have no place in the history of the progress of 

 real knowledge, except to show the strange chaos of wild fancies and 

 legends out of which it had to emerge. We proceed to trace the 

 history of the knowledge of plants. 



6 Lib. xxv. 5. T De Plantis, ix. 9, 



