80 Baron Cuvier's Lectures on the Natural Sciences. 



speaking of the trees in warm countries, he describes the real 

 acacia, which is a mimosa, a sensitive plant, different from that 

 small species which is cultivated in our greenhouses ; the le- 

 mon-tree (the thorny apple-tree of the Medes), the fruit of 

 which was used at that time for jjerfuming clothes; the banana- 

 tree, the large leaves of which resemble a bunch of ostrich 

 feathers ; finally, the fig-tree of the Brahmins, the branches of 

 which, descending to the earth, take root in it, and send forth 

 new shoots. He speaks also of the ebony and cotton-tree, a 

 shrub which was known from the time of the expedition of 

 Alexander, but which had not yet been transported into Greece. 

 Theophrastus speaks of plants which grow in water, such as 

 the fucus and sponge. He remarks, that in these last there is 

 something approaching to animals. In treating of vegetables 

 which grow in rivers, he describes the papyrus, a plant so im- 

 portant during the time when parchment was undiscovered ; 

 and of the lotus, a sort of nymphtea, very common in every 

 Egyptian canal. 



He treats of the length of the life of plants, their diseasesj 

 and, among others, of those which attack wood ; also of the in- 

 sects that gnaw it. On this subject, he describes the larva of the 

 horn-beetle. He shews the places in which forest-trees attain 

 the greatest height, and mentions Corsica in particular. 



These are nearly all the subjects treated of in the first five 

 books. The sixth treats of shrubs, bushes, and garden flowers ; 

 the seventh, of culinary vegetables, and also of some field plants ; 

 the eighth, of the cerealia, and of leguminous plants ; and, in 

 the ninth and last book, he treats of the juices v/hich are ex- 

 tracted from plants, namely, pitch, tar, rosin, frankincense, 

 and myrrh. In this book, he treats also of certain aromatics, 

 particularly of cinnamon, and of several medicinal plants, of 

 hellebore, for example, which was much more in use among the 

 ancients than it is among the moderns. From wl>at has been 

 said, it is obvious, that the history of plants is a sort of counter- 

 part of the history of animals. But Theophrastus, though he 

 had a good deal of talent and information, M^as far from having 

 the genius of Aristotle. Nor do we find in his works those 

 enlarged views, and that abundance of general rules, which we 

 admire in the other, 

 3 



