INTRODUCTION, 
Borany, and more particularly Medical Botany, is of 
very ancient origin; the first idea of applying plants for 
medicinal purposes having, it is said, originated with the 
Chaldeans (the priests or learned men of Babylonia), who 
from their earliest youth devoted themselves to the exami- 
nation of the laws of Nature, and who made the study of 
the properties of plants available for relieving the diseases 
of mankind. ‘This knowledge was transmitted by them to 
the Egyptians, from whom it descended to the Greeks, 
and for a long time remained in the hands of the priests 
of the mythological god of medecine, Aisculapius ; to 
them we must ascribe the first dawn of botanical science 
in Greece. Their doctrines, however, were most confused 
and absurd. They supposed that vegetable substances 
had sentient souls, desires, and wishes, and were capable 
of experiencing pleasure and pain. They were followed 
by Pythagoras and his disciples, one of whom, Empe- 
docles the Sicilian, even declared that he himself had 
been once a shrub, then a bird, then a fish, and lastly a 
man. But little progress was made until the increasing 
sufferings consequent upon the violation of the simple 
rules of our primitive forefathers induced many of the 
Greek philosophers to turn their attention to, and endea- 
vour to increase and improve the means which had been 
handed down to them. A new era, however, com- 
menced with Hippocrates, the Father of medicine, 
