THE AMERICAN BOTANIST lol 



an idea (»f wliat \\c rcj^ard a^ llie nuKk'ni >nl)j<.'ct <>i (.•\i)lnti"ii. 



After the ileath of Ari.stotle (in .^_'J H. C. ) Tlieophras- 

 tu>, aiiiitlier (ireek plusieian \vlii> lia> been associated with 

 him in a school at Athens, wrote a hook «if hi> i>\\n entitled 

 ■'The Xatmal lli>tory of Plants" which was founded mainly 

 on the ol)ser\alions of the rhi/.olomei or herh ,<,^'lthers. In 

 this he clescrihed more than 5(10 species of plants. h'or 

 several centuries after this, no hook ahout plants important 

 enough lo he rememhered was produced. The next work of 

 which we lia\ e know le(li.je was a fifteen \olinne work on 

 "Materia Medica" or histor\- of medicinal plants written hy 

 Petlanius Dioscorides who li\ed in the lirst centur\- after the 

 Christian era. 



Amon^' tile Romans, tiie name of Gains I'linius Secun- 

 dus, or Plin\- the h'Ider, iiolds first place in the list of writers 

 on nature. IMin\- was horn in the \ear i.> .\. I), and near the 

 end of a hus\- life issued his famous "Natural llisi(ir\- (tf 

 I'lants" consisting' of .v~ \olumes. This work, like man\- of 

 the earlv hooks, was larj^eK' a compilation of the thou.t,dits 

 and ohservations of others. In composing; it he is said to 

 ha\e consulted no less than iOO xolunies. It was his hahit 

 to make coi)ious notes of all he read and at his death he lett 

 160 volumes of such notes. IMiny's thirst for know ledi^e at 

 last led to his death. In the \ear /'•), an eruption of Mt. 

 \'esu\ius overwhelmed Herculaneuni and Pom])eii, I'liny. 

 who was in command of the Roman .\a\\'. was with his fleet 

 in the Bay of Naples and .noiui,'' ashore to better observe the 

 occurence, lini^ered too lont( to make notes and j)erished with 

 man\' of the inhabitants. 



Kor man\ centuries after Pliny and Dioscorides. little if 

 any adxance in botany was made. The fall of the Roiuan 

 h'mpire about 500 \ears after Ciirist. and the o\ erijowennt,^ 

 of the intellectural nations 1)\- others hostile to culture, ex- 



