LANDMARKS OF BOTANICAL HISTORY — GREENE 57 



evening for perhaps sixty years or more when, almost a centenarian, 

 he wrote such clauses as the following in his will. They should 

 help us to a realization of the scientific zeal and activity of a .or- 

 gotten time. 



" I bequeath to my friends, who are specially named in this 

 my Will,^ and to those that will spend their time with them in 

 learning and philosophy, my garden, walk, and houses adjoining; 

 upon condition however that none of them shall claim any particu- 

 lar property therein, or alienate them from their proper use; but 

 that they shall be enjoyed in common by them all. as a sacred 

 place where they may familiarly visit one another and discourse 

 together like good friends. "^ And further: " I desire to be buried 

 in any part of the garden that they shall think most suitable; charg- 

 ing them not to be at any superfluous expense either upon my 

 funeral or upon my tomb. Which being done, my will is that 

 Pomphylus who lives in the house take care of everything, as he 

 did before."^ 



That Pomphylus was an overseer, directing the labors of bonds- 

 men gardeners owned by Theophrastus, comes out incidentally 

 in another clause. " As for my boys, it is my will that Molo, Cymo, 

 and Parmeno be forthwith set at liberty. As for Manes and Callias, 

 I will not have them given their freedom until they shall have la- 

 bored four years longer in the garden, so that there be no fault 

 found with their labor and diligence; but after that, let them have 

 their freedom. " Besides these five, two others are mentioned. " I 

 give Cano to Demotimus, and Donax to Neleus."'* 



By means of this testamentary document, the transcript of which 

 has been fortunately preserved, one is able to realize something of 

 the extent, and even of the perpetuation during perhaps three 

 generations, of this pristine garden for biologic research. And this 

 realization will be exceedingly helpful toward a comprehension of 

 the magnitude of Theophrastus' work along these lines. The 

 philosopher was never, like many of his class and in his time, a 

 traveller. He did not devote any more than a fraction of his time 

 to botany. His writings on this subject amount to perhaps not 

 more than a twentieth part of all that he did in the line of written 

 authorship. And there are chapters in the Historia Plantarum that 



' Hipparchus, Neleus, Strato, Callio, Demotimus, Callisthenes, and 

 Cresarchus are their names, according to Laertius, vol. i, 361. 



2 Laertius, vol. i, 358. > Ibid., 359. 



♦ Laertius, vol. i, 360. Note also the botanical names of the two young 

 slaves Cymo and Donax. 



