I860.] CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. 17 



anticipate that considerable additions remain to be made to tbe 

 Flora of Huddersfield. 



When Mr. Hobkirk prepares a second edition of his work^ he 

 is recommended to enter the distances of the respective localities 

 from the town. A small map of the district would be a useful 

 addition. 



CHAPTEES ON BEITISH BOTANY. 



CHAPTER IV.— THEOPHRASTUS AND THE EARLY BOTANISTS OF 



GREECE. 



Ehizotomi (rhizotomists), Root-diggers or Herbalists : superstitious practices 

 of : some of them noticed by Theophrastus and Athenseus. — Theopbrastus : 

 his hfe, by Diogenes : his History of Plants. 



There were heroes before the Atridse led the armies of Greece 

 against Troy. Fortes vixere ante Ayamemnona. 



There were botanists before Theophrastus. Greek botanists 

 are quoted in his ' History of Plants.' He has preserved the me- 

 morial of these early plant-seekers and root-diggers, even to these 

 our days. But if Theophrastus be not the first botanist, he is 

 the earliest writer on the subject whose works are extant. 



To Greece is usually attributed the honour of being the in- 

 structress of Europe in learning, science, and art. Whence the 

 Greeks obtained their knowledge we do not precisely know, pro- 

 bably from Egypt and the East, certainly not from the West. 

 That they were the instructors of the Romans we also know; and 

 the latter became not only the masters, but the teachers of the 

 world. 



It may be said, truly enough, that Britain did not get the 

 knowledge of plants from Greece. Very likely the ancient Bri- 

 tons knew as much Botany before the E-omans invaded and sub- 

 jugated the aboriginal inhabitants of these Isles, as they did 

 subsequently to the Eoman invasion. But it should not be for- 

 gotten that our acquaintance with the acquisitions of our fore- 

 fathers in botany and in all other branches of learning, is derived 

 solely from the writers of Eome and Greece. On the botany of 

 the Druids, Pliny is almost our only authority. The subject is 

 only incidentally noticed in the histories of Csesar and Tacitus. 



Pliny's knowledge was collected from the Grecian authors 



N. S. VOL. IV. D 



