THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD 91 



of Citium (50 B.C.). As the physicians were also 

 pharmaceutists, botany benefited by their study of 

 plants, for example Cratevas, the physician of 

 Mithridates, wrote an excellent book on plants with 

 illustrations and notes on pharmacy ; and the poet 

 Nicander of Colophon composed a work on poisons 

 and their antidotes, which in spite of its dulness found 

 readers and commentators. 



