HISTORY. 27 
described, with great clearness, for instance, the sugar-cane and 
sugar, while others made themselves acquainted with the agrumt 
(the fruits of species of Citrus), with licorice, dates, cotton, and 
cumin (Cuminum Cyminum).' 
It was only subsequent to these voyages that swgar became a 
regular article of commerce, chiefly in the hands of the Venetians. 
The successful cultivation of saffron in England and France 
during the middle ages, and the culture of roses in the province 
of Champagne was started, or at least probably received a new 
impulse, through the crusaders. 
In Germany the great Benedictine monasteries, for instance, 
those of St. Gall and Fulda, formed the central points of intellec- 
tual culture, and likewise supported and distributed botanico- 
medical knowledge, even though they did not actually augment 
it. The first monastery of this in many respects highly meritorious 
order, which was founded by St. Benedict himself, in the year 
528, at Monte Cassino, northwest of Naples, and afterward be- 
came so greatly celebrated, stood in the eleventh century in 
close relation to the medical school of Salerno. This school was 
also of influence in determining the intellectual course of St. 
Hildegard, who, in the year 1148, became abbess of a convent of 
the Benedictine order, founded at her own instigation near 
Bingen on the Rhine. To this personage is attributed, although 
not with absolute certainty, a work which is very remarkable 
from a pharmacognostical point of view: ‘‘ Subtilitatum diver- 
sarum naturarum creaturarum libri novem,” and is presumed to 
have been written about the year 1178. By the enumeration of 
a number of indigenous plants, to which some prominent 
characteristic, or often also the German name,? was occasionally 
added, the book of Hildegard, frequently designated as ‘‘ Phy- 
sica,” reveals itself as a truly German production. Of incom- 
* Compare the respective articles in the ‘‘ Pharmacographia” and in 
Flickiger’s ‘‘ Pharmakognosie;” also Meyer, ‘Geschichte der Pole 2 
nik,” IV., p. 110; Heyd, *‘ Levantehandel,” IT., p. 670. 
‘ Couper also Pritzel and Jessen, ‘‘ Die dentachens Volksnamen a 
Pflanzen. Aus allen Mundarten and Zeiten BEE ie a bic Han- 
ee 1882. os z 
