THE PLANT WOKLD 143 



descended for baptism. Accordingly, flowers formerly dedicated to 

 Cypris, or Venus, were now christened in honor of Marianus, Our Lady, 

 and so it follows that we have Marianus violets, signifying our Lady's 

 violets, and Calceolus 3Iarianus, signifying Our Lady's slippers. 



It is plainly illustrated that the dove, eagle, serpent, dragon and 

 lamb have ever been held sacred in delivering the will of the gods of 

 profane as well as sacred history ; the dove and lamb being symbols of 

 purity, and the eagle, serpent and dragons denote strength and hidden 

 evils. Natural science formed a prominent object of the first Greek 

 philosophers, and furnished subjects for some of the earliest didactic 

 forms. In order to understand the origins of plant names, one must 

 become familar with botanical history and observe the slow progress 

 of increased knowledge in the science from Theophrastus before Christ 

 to our own century. 



Beginning with Hippocrates, " Father of Medicine," 400 B. C, we 

 observe that he knew but 234 species of plants. Theophrastus, " Father 

 of Mineralogy and Botany," 225 B. C, knew 500 species of plants and 

 shrubs. He was a naturalist, a pupil under Plato and Aristotle, and is 

 considered our first real botanist, leaving extant works. He left ten 

 books, entitled " Of the History of Plants," which are the earliest known 

 treatises on botany. 



Plants were studied in those days mainly for their medicinal virtues, 

 and naturalists and physicians alike, published histories of plant life 

 then, as we publish our Materia Medica to-day, solely to aid the student 

 of medicine. 



Dioscorides and the elder Pliny lived in the first century, 23-79 A. 

 D. Dioscorides knew 600 species, while Pliny published 800-1000 

 varieties of plants in his Natural History ; all in fact formerly known or 

 heard of by the ancient writers before Christ. 



Following Pliny, there ensued nearly seven hundred years, in which 

 plant study passed into oblivion, and of which we have little, if any, val- 

 uable record. In the seventh century, however, Avicenna, an Arabian, 

 took up the study again briefly, which, owing to the general uprisings 

 and warrings of the nations, was destined to relapse again into utter 

 obscurity. Botany, therefore, made comparatively no permanent pro- 

 gress for 1500 years after Pliny's day, 23-79 A. D., until about Ray's 

 time, 1685-1704 A. D., when 18,625 species of plants were published by 

 him. 



The first botanist, however, to actually revive botany after Avicenna 

 was Otto BiTinfels, a German, who published a " History of Strasburgh 

 Plants " in two volumes, illustrated with cuts, in 1530. Following him? 

 Leonard Fuchs in 1535, in whose honor our Fuchsia is named, and 

 many eminent scholars of the period, began to study plant life. Herbals 



