78 Baron Cuvier's Lectures on the Natural Sciences. 



friven of the plants of warm countries, lie under a disadvantage^ 

 from this want of the means of observation. His botanic gar- 

 den, however, notwithstanding this imperfection, was still a 

 very useful institution to science : it was the first of the kind 

 that had been established. 



Theophrastus wrote on different subjects, on general philoso- 

 phical questions, on manners, and on natural history. He left, 

 it is said, more than two hundred treatises, the titles of which 

 have been partly preserved to us by Diogenes Laertius. The 

 most considerable of these, as well as some inferior ones, are 

 still extant. In all these works, there is a good deal of spirit, 

 much justness and elegance of expression, and great clearness of 

 method. 



The most important work of Theophrastus is his History of 

 Plants, a work somewhat similar in design to Aristotle's History 

 of Animals. Thus, according to his model, he begins by treat- 

 ing of the parts of plants, which, first of all, he divides into 

 roots, stems, branches, and shoots. He remarks, and with pro- 

 priety, that there is not one of these parts which is common to 

 every plant — a circumstance which is very true, if truffles and 

 mushrooms be excluded, as it is proper they should be. In 

 every part, he distinguishes the bark, the wood, and the pith. 

 He goes on to shew the exterior organs of the vegetables, the 

 leaves, the flower, the peduncle, the tendrils, — and, on this sub- 

 ject, he speaks of gall-nuts. Then, he treats of the interior 

 parts of the flesh, that is to say, of the parenchyma^ veins, and 

 juices. 



After these preliminary observations, he divides plants, and 

 forms a sort of method, similar to that of Aristotle in treating 

 of animals. But his task was a more difficult one to accom- 

 plish, as the characters necessary for establishing, to a classifi- 

 cation, are less easily met with in vegetable than in animated 

 beings. Theophrastus contents himself, therefore, with divid- 

 ing plants, according to their size and consistence, into trees, 

 shrubs, plants, and herbs. This mode of division has been of 

 very long continuance. 



He speaks of the different qualities of wood and pith, and of 

 the different forms assumed by the root, namely, the fusiform, 

 the ramous, the tuberculous, or bulbous ; and illustrates his de- 



