BOTiNY. MB 



fevery department of literature and science, have left us little worthy 

 of notice in this, they have, indeed, left us some works concerning 

 vegetables, but in these we cannot perceive the least germ of botanical 

 science. Their deficiency in this respect is more remarkable, because 

 we know that their attention was much engrossed both in the study of 

 agriculture and horticulture, and that they encouraged those arts by 

 Several acts of protective legislation, by which the plough and other 

 instruments of agriculture were protected from sale and seizure, and 

 imposing severe penalties on the destruction of olive trees. 



It would appear, therefore, that men of the most intellectual cast of 

 mind, may long enjoy the fruits of the earth in the highest degree of 

 perfection, without behig excited to the study of vegetable organiza- 

 tion, or awakened to the utility of reducing to some system the tribes 

 of plants within their reach. 



If we turn to Roman literature we shall be equally disappointed in 

 our search for any thing approaching to what we mean by botany in 

 more modern times. So little, indeed, were the true principles of 

 botanical description knowrr in those times, that the mere denomina- 

 tion of the particular* plants, treated of by the writers of that age, 

 has conferred a degree of reputation, for learning and ingenuity, orr 

 those modem commentators who have succeeded in this troirblesome 

 undertaking. 



Passing over the darkness of the literatm-e of the middle ages, in 

 which nothing new was recorded, or discovered in the vegetable king- 

 dom, for it was then an unexplored field, without a labourer to collate 

 its contents, to discover its beauties, or to reduce it to arr intelligible 

 system ; we will briefly notice the period when botanical science may 

 be said to have had its commencemerrt. 



It was not until the close of the sixteenth century that Ceesalpinus, 

 a Florentine, made the first attempt at classification. Jungius followed 

 in his footsteps, and taking a closer and more extensive viaiv of his 

 subject, developed those principles upon which the Linnean system 

 was foimded. Ray arrd Grew iir England, and Malphiqhi on the 

 continent, put the science in a new light, about the close of the seveB- 

 teenlh century, by the wonderfirl patience which they exhibited in their 

 anatomical investigations of vegetable structui-e. About this time 

 Canrerarius discovered, by obsenation aird experiment, the sex in plants 

 upon which Linnaeus, in 1737, fomided' his system of classifica- 



