NaturaUHistorical Collections. 371 



Theophrastus speaks of plants which grow in water, such as the fucus and 

 sponge. He remarks, that in the latter there is something approaching to ani- 

 mals. In treating of vegetables which grow in rivers, he describes the papyrus, 

 an important plant during the time when parchment was undiscovered ; and of 

 the lotus, a sort of nymphffia, very common in every Egyptian canal. 



He treats of the duration of the life of plants, and of their diseases,— among 

 others, of those which attack the wood ; also of the insects that destroy it. On this 

 subject, he describes the larvm of the hom-beetle. He shows the places in which 

 forest-trees attain the greatest height, and mentions Corsica in particular. 



These are nearly all the subjects treated of in the first five books. The sixth 

 treats of shrubs, bushes, and garden flowers ; the seventh, of culinary vegetables, 

 and also of some field plants ; the eighth, of grains, and of some leguminous 

 plants ; and, in the ninth and last book, he treats of the juices which are extract- 

 ed from plants, namely, pitch, tar, resin, frankincense, and myrrh. In this book, 

 he speaks also of certain aromatics, particularly of cinnamon, and of several medi- 

 cinal plants, of hellebore, for instance, which was much more in use among the 

 ancients than it is among the modems. 



From what has been said, it is obvious, that the history of plants is a sort of 

 counterpart to the history of animals. But Theophrastus, though he had a good 

 deal of talent and information, was far from having the genius of Aristotle. Nor 

 do we find in his works those enlarged views, and that abundance of general rules, 

 which we admire in the other. 



Theophrastus noticed in his work about 360 plants. There are mentioned in 

 it a good many forest-trees, and fruit-trees, most of the culinary vegetables, grains, 

 and, lastly, a great many Indian plants, which have been discovered again only 

 since the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries. 



Theophrastus wrote another work relating to botany, — a treatise on the Causes 

 of Plants. In it he treats of some questions in vegetable physiology, but princi- 

 pally on the influence of external circumstances on plants. He proposes a cer- 

 tain number of questions, which it is not always easy to answer. He asks, for ex- 

 ample, why the best fruit does not always contain the best seed ? — why the fruit of 

 wild trees has not so sweet a taste as that of cultivated trees ? He puts also other 

 physical questions. He would have it explained, for instance, why animals have 

 not in general a pleasant odour, since many plants diffuse a very agreeable frag- 

 rance ? It is, says he, because animals, being of a hot, dry constitution, and hav- 

 ing a thin breath, throw off by evaporation the superfluous parts of their aliment. 

 The physics of Theophrastus are worse than those of Aristotle. 



Theophrastus, like his master, studied almost all the branches of natural his- 

 tory. He wrote some small treatises on different points in zoology. There is 

 one of them which treats offish that live without water, in which he gives proofs 

 of extensive knowledge of the productions of India. He speaks of flying-fish ; 

 of those which the sea in ebbing leaves upon the rocks ; of those which lie bu- 

 ried in the mud of lakes, as the loach, and comitis fossilis, which is sometimes 

 found in slime when thickened and dried. He speaks of an Indian fish that 

 comes out of the water. This fish, which was unknov/n to us till about twenty 

 years ago, when we were made acquainted wtih it through the account of M . 

 Hamilton Buchanan, is the ophicephalus. It lives in the Ganges ; but it is 

 found sometimes at so great a distance from every appearance of water, that the 

 people believe it to have fallen from heaven. Theophrastus gives a pretty goo<l 

 description of it, and says that it resembles the mullet, in the round form of the 

 head, in its colour, and in the disposition of its scales. 



Theophrastus wrote also a small treatise on animals which change their colour. 

 Here he speaks of the various colours assumed by the cameleon, and the change 

 of tint which takes place in the hair of the reindeer, — a change which he con- 

 siders as dependent upon the will of the animal, but which, in reality, is only an 

 effect of the seasons. In another little work upon animals which appear suddenly, 

 VOL. II. 3 B 



