DIVI BOTANICI. 183 



and ciasic persons who haue some tedious and lingriiig nialadiu 

 hanging vpon them." Here is a selection from the curious and in- 

 structive notes of Pliny in his natural history of the Melampodium, 

 as it was esteemed for a medicine by the ancients. He shows very 

 clearly that, from observation and experience, the fathers of primi- 

 tive families possessed much information concerning the nature anil 

 virtues of herbs; and, with many evidences, he also shows how soon 

 the first tribes, misled by their patriarchs, degenerated from the 

 simple worship of Him who created the Universe, while they 

 brought debasement on the higher elements of Mind by the institu- 

 tion of fantastic and mystical rites as excitements to a spurious de- 

 votion. So prone is Man to invent superstitious observances, 

 through a misuse of the intuitive sentiment that naturally disposes 

 him to be religious. 



Teucer. — Legendary tradition prefers some claims to consistency 

 when it uniformly selects the reputed disciples of Chiron the Cen- 

 taur from among the cotemporary chieftains, notwithstanding the 

 simple personal history of these unforgotten naturalists is densely 

 encumbered with the ornaments of mythological and allegorical po- 

 etry. Like the rest, Teucer was fortunate in having " the wise and 

 just man of ^monia'' for his instructor ; and, profiting by the 

 Centaur's precepts, he acquired a predilection for the exercise of his 

 observant faculties in the exan^nation of vegetable productions, so 

 as to make them applicable to useful ends. With his parents, origi- 

 nated one of the first causes, and he himself was a high-spirited pro- 

 moter, of that disastrous struggle which, " in the olden time," in- 

 volved so many nations in misery, and occasioned so many heroes to 

 be sacrificed at War's ensanguined shrine — the siege and extinction 

 of Troy. 



Teucer was the son of Telamon king of Salamis,* an island in the 

 iEgean sea, with a capital bearing the same name. His mother 

 was Hesione, the daughter of Laomedon king of Troy, whose faith- 

 lessness and ingratitude led to the first overthrow of that ill-fated 

 city. He built its walls, and made vows with his supplications for 

 divine assistance in the undertaking ; but, when the work was com- 

 pleted, he stubbornly abstained from performing fairly his solemn 



• Colour! is the modern name of this island, so famous for one of the most 

 eventful naval coiiliicts recorded in ancient liistory. Ajax Telamon and liis 

 half-brother Teucer, who earned the highest reputation for valour aiul ciitcr- 

 pii/.c in the last Trojan war, were the sous of its sovereign. It lies o|)])osite 

 tiic southern coast of Attica, from wliicli il is only a t'cw miles distant : it is 

 about iiflv miles hi cu'cuml'ercncc. 



