LANDMARKS OF BOTANICAL HISTORY —GREENE I 55 



The services of this next to the last of great Greek physicians to 

 botany are well commemorated in that fine generic type Dioscorea 

 dedicated by Plumier in the year 1703. 



Caius Plinius Secundus (a.d. 23-79). — Two venerable cities 

 of Italy contend for the honor of having been his birthplace, 

 namely Como and Verona. But wherever he was bom, the elder 

 Pliny lived in Rome and called himself a Roman. He is known 

 as Pliny the elder, to distinguish him from a nephew of his who 

 bore the same name, and is also an author of some note. But 

 the elder Pliny is one of the remarkable men, and among the most 

 voluminous authors, of ancient times. His character, his manner 

 of life, and his rather early martyrdom to knowledge, were written 

 of after his death, by his nephew and namesake in a letter to a 

 friend : 



"I rejoice exceedingly that thou readest so eagerly my uncle's 

 books, that thou wishest to obtain a complete set of them, and 

 makest inquiry concerning all of them. I will serve you in the 

 capacity of an Index, and shall even indicate to you the order in 

 which they were written; for to know that is a matter of interest 

 to the learned. Spearcasts of the Cavalry. One Book. He wrote 

 this while in command of a company of cavalry, where his leader- 

 ship was marked equally by courage and prudence. The Life of 

 Pomponius. Two Books; a tribute to the memory of his best 

 friend. Twenty Books Of the German Wars, embracing a full 

 account of all our wars with the Germans. He undertook this 

 work while in military service in Germany, and it was suggested 

 to him in a dream. Three Books of The Student, so comprehensive 

 as to fill six volumes, wherein the aspirant to oratory is advised 

 and directed from the cradle forward. Eight Books on Hesitancies 

 in Public Address. These were written under Nero, when anything 

 like bold or unrestrained writing was unsafe. Thirty-one Books 

 supplementing the (historic) Work of Aufidius Bassus. Thirty- 

 seven Books of Natural History; a work as comprehensive, 

 learned, and many-sided as nature itself. Thou wilt wonder how 

 a man of so many business affairs could bring to completion so 

 many volumes, and on such difficult subjects. You will be still 

 more surprised to learn that for a long time he was a busy lawyer, 

 that he died in his fifty-sixth year, that he had been much occupied 

 with the duties of the most responsible public oflfices, and that his 

 time had also been heavily taxed by the exactions of the friendship 

 of princes. The explanation is, that he was of the keenest intelli- 

 gence, and his economy of time something almost beyond belief. 



