40 A TEXTBOOK OF THEORETICAL BOTANY 



either as food, as medicine or as magical charms. In endeavouring to convey 

 such knowledge to others, descriptions of species had to be framed, and it 

 was inevitable that simple ideas of classification should arise out of the work 

 of description, such, for example, as the notion of the species and the group- 

 ing of plants in general into trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses etc., according to 

 their habit of growth. From time immemorial certain plants were cultivated 

 or were sought in the wild state, and familiarity with their habits gave rise 

 to primitive ideas on plant physiology, which remained almost unchanged 

 until the eighteenth century. Classification, on the other hand, began to 

 make advances at the beginning of written history about the fifth century 

 B.C. This period was one of those recurrent epochs of activity in which 

 men's minds become deeply stirred by new ways of thought, and it was 

 signalized by the appearance for the first time of great teachers who had 

 theories to expound. 



Part of this activity was medical and resulted in a great extension of 

 information about plants, which must have rendered evident the need for 

 systematization. Accordingly in the fourth century B.C. we find Aristotle 

 (384-323 B.C.) using the resources placed at his disposal as the tutor of 

 Alexander the Great to make extensive collections and to begin the work of 

 arrangement on logical lines. Aristotle was not principally a botanist, though 

 he wrote a book, now mostly lost, on plants. The real founder of botanical 

 science was Theophrastus of Eresus (371-285 B.C.), who was taught by 

 Aristotle and succeeded him as teacher at the Lyceum. His outlook, like 

 that of his predecessor, was thoroughly scientific. He deliberately formulated 

 scientific problems, stating them in clear language and endeavouring to 

 solve them by intellectual means. The distance between such an objective 

 philosophy and primitive utilitarianism marks one of the greatest advances 

 in human culture. 



The downfall of Grecian liberty put an end to this great period and the 

 next names we must mention are those of Romans. Pliny the Elder (a.d. 

 23-79) was imbued with the Greek tradition of inquiry, but lacked the 

 critical and sceptical attitude of the old Greeks. His " Natural History " 

 is an enormous compilation of material, largely from other authors, which 

 preserved for later ages some part of the lost learning of antiquity. It 

 exercised the greatest influence on medieval natural philosophy, and was 

 not displaced until Aristotelean originals became available in the thirteenth 

 century. 



Another Roman botanist was Dioscorides (first century a.d.), a native of 

 Asia Minor and a physician. He was therefore in the intellectual succession 

 from the Greek herbalists of the fifth century B.C., and his work was medical 

 and practical in intention. Nevertheless his book, which was encyclopaedic 

 for his time, remained until the Renaissance the chief storehouse of botanical 

 information, and it exercised a great influence on the botanical studies of the 

 Middle Ages. In spite of the purely practical aim of the work its methodical 

 treatment showed the way towards scientific system. 



Throughout the early Middle Ages there is nothing to record but a 



