78 PLII^'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXV. 



heart of wilds and deserts, and searching into every vein and 

 fibre of the earth — and all this, to discover the hidden virtues 

 of every root, the properties of the leaf of every plant, and the 

 various purposes to which they might be applied ; converting 

 thereby those vegetable productions, which the very beasts of 

 the field refuse to touch, into so many instruments for our 

 welfare. 



CHAP. 2. (2.) THE LATIN AUTHORS WHO HAVE WRITTEN UPON" 



THESE PLANTS. 



This subject has not been treated of by the writers in our 

 own language so extensively as it deserves, eager as they have 

 proved themselves to make enquiry into everything that is 

 either meritorious or profitable. M. Cato, that great master 

 in all useful knowledge, was the first, and, for a long time, the 

 only author who treated of this branch^ of learning; and 

 briefly as he has touched upon it, he has not omitted to make 

 some mention of the remedial treatment of cattle. After him, 

 another illustrious personage, C. Valgius,^ a man distinguished 

 for his erudition, commenced a treatise upon the same subject, 

 which he dedicated to the late Emperor Augustus, but left 

 unfinished. At the beginning of his preface, replete as it is 

 with a spirit df piety,^ he expresses a hope that the majestic 

 sway of that prince may ever prove a most efficient remedy 

 for all the evils to which mankind are exposed. 



CHAP. 3. AT WHAT PERIOD THE ROMANS ACQUIRED SOME KNOW- 

 LEDGE OF THIS SUBJECT. 



The only* person among us, at least so far as I have been able 

 to ascertain, who had treated of this subject before the time of 

 Valgius, was Pompeius Lenaeus,^ the freedraan of Pompeius 

 Magnus; and it was in his day, I find, that this branch of 

 knowledge first began to be cultivated among us. Mithridates, 

 the most powerful monarch of that period, and who was finally 

 conquered by Pompeius, is generally thought to have been a 



^ As Fee remarks, it is more as a writer upon Agriculture than upon 

 Materia Medica, that Cato is entitled to the thanks of posterity. 



* See end of B. xx. 



3 Ilis piety, apparently, was tainted with adulation. 



* With the exception of Cato, of course. 

 5 See end of B. liv. 



