HISTORY OF BOTANY. 15 



Persian manna, mezereon, mjTobalans, nutmegs, nymphsea, 

 rhubarb, opium, sugar,* gum sandarach, red sanders, sebes- 

 tens, senna, tamarinds, hops, and zeodar3^" 



It would occupy too much space to enter minutely into 

 this branch of our history, and moreover it is not an easy 

 chapter to write, because of our scant, and sometimes con- 

 tradictory, information on the subject. There still exist, 

 however, several Arabic manuscripts which give an account 

 of these physicians, and it has been stated that not a few of 

 the mistakes that have been made may be traced to an 

 imperfect knowledge of this language. Edward Pocock, 

 professor of Hebrew and Arabic at Oxford, celebrated for 

 his profound knowledge of Oriental languages, published, in 

 1672, the text, with a translation, of the Oriental history of 

 Gregorius Abul-Pharadsh, a native of Melitene, in Lesser 

 Armenia, who was born 1226 and died 1286. Another great 

 fountain head of information is a manuscript of Ebn Abu 

 Oseibia, a native of Damascus, who died 1269. This was 

 translated by Eeiske, of Leipsic (who died 1774), which 

 work is in the Eoyal Library of Copenhagen. It has also 

 been treated on by the late Professor Nicol and others. 

 Professor Wiirstenfeld, of Gottingen, published in 1810 a 

 ' History of the Arab Physicians and Naturalists ' : it is in a 

 great measure from this very concise work that I have 

 drawn the following information about a few of the most 

 celebrated of those physicians whose writings, through 

 medicine, have a bearing on Botany. 



But first it may be as well to give a few words of explana- 

 tion as to their names, which in the original have very slight 

 resemblance to those that they are best known b}^ and as I 



* Sugar is certainly mentioned and described by Dioscorides and 

 Pliny, but does not seem to have been then in extensive use in medi- 

 cine, or employed, as by the Arabs, in the preparation of syrups, for 

 which pui-pose honey was first used. 



