I860.] CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. 19 



nestor^ Hippon^ Leophanes^ Diogenes, etc., lived prior to Theo- 

 phrastus. 



Theophrastus was, says Sprengel, the most celebrated of all the 

 ancient botanists, and truly deserves the title of the Father of 

 botanical scierxe. He is called Eresius, from a town or place in 

 the island of Lesbos, where he was born, 370 years before our 

 era. His father was a fuller, named Melantha, and his own 

 name was originally Tyrtamus, which was changed by Aristotle 

 to Theophrastus, because, as Pliny says, he was very eloquent (a 

 divine speaker), from which most excellent quality he obtained 

 his divine name. 



His teachers are said by Diogenes (not the Cynic, but another 

 divine-born son of the muses, viz. Diogenes Laertius, who wrote 

 the lives of the philosophers) to have been first Leucippus, one of 

 his own citizens, next the divine Plato, and last the famous Aris- 

 totle. 



When Aristotle retired from the Peripatetic school, his pu- 

 pil and friend, Theophrastus, was chosen to be his successor. So 

 great was the reputation of this celebrated school, while under his 

 charge, that it was attended by two thousand students. His 

 fame was not only spread over all Greece, but it extended to 

 Egypt, then a Grecian kingdom, and he was invited by Ptolemy, 

 the son of Lagos, to Alexandria. He attained to great longevity, 

 having lived more than one hundred years. This is inferred from 

 a sentence in his work, entitled 'Characters,' although Diogenes 

 states positively that he died in his eighty-fifth year. But 

 whether he lived upwards of eighty years or upwards of a hun- 

 dred, he lived for the benefit of his contemporaries, for the in- 

 struction of future generations, and for an honour to humanity. 



He was not, however, contented with the space of time allotted 

 to him by nature, for he blamed her because she had given a long 

 life to crows and stags, although to them it was of no great use, 

 and denied it to men ; adding, r]ij,et<;, ottot^ ap')(piJbeda ^7]v, tot' 

 aTToOveaKOfxev (but we no sooner begin to live than we die). Ci- 

 cero, in his ' Tusculan Disquisitions ' (Qusestiones) takes up the 

 same complaint against nature, justly affirming that if a longer 

 life was granted to eminent men, they would make more progress 

 in knowledge, wisdom, and virtue. 



He was so much beloved by his citizens (Athenians) that he 

 was honoured with a public funeral. The Athenians followed 



