198 CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. \July, 



CHAPTEES ON BEITISH BOTANY. 



CHAPTEE V. 



Theophrastus and other early botanical writers. — Eemarks on plants supposed com- 

 mon both to England and Greece. — Theophrastus the earhest authority on no- 

 menclature.- — Names of plants common to both languages, Greek and Enghsh. — 

 Authorities ; abbreviations. — Catalogue of plants named or described by Theo- 

 phrastus, supposed common to both Greece and England. 



The early botanists did not attempt to define the limits of spe- 

 cies so precisely or rigidly as the modern writers on botany very 

 properly do, or endeavour to do. The former, in many cases, 

 comprehended under one general name several species and even 

 genera. They also described as species several forms which are 

 now generally received only as varieties. 



For example, they treated the varieties of economical plants, 

 such as fruit-trees, cereals, and culinary vegetables, as genuine 

 species ; and also occasionally under one general name, as Gramen 

 or Gramina, they entered not only distinct genera, but different 

 or distinct orders, as Graminece, Cyperacece, Typhacecs, etc. 



They also describe Anagallis phcenicea and A. c(£rulea as in- 

 dependent species, which are now, by general consent, described 

 as varieties of one species, A. arvensis.'^ 



The following list of plants, or names of plants, common or 

 assumed to be common both to England and Greece, are divisible 

 into two classes. First, such British species as are certainly the 

 same that are recorded by Theophrastus in his History of Plants, 

 as for example, Pyrus Mains, Acorus Calamus, and several other 

 species. Second, such as may be those described by Theophrastus, 

 but which are to be received as doubtful ; because this famous 

 ancient botanist did not define so precisely as his successors in 

 modern times; and he may, as above stated, have included two 

 or more plants under one name. 



Sciences, like cities, are not devised and constructed in a day ; 

 as the proverb tells us that " Rome was not built in a day." Ex» 

 perience teaches us that the botany even of a single parish is 



* Can any of the readers of this inform the writer which is the type or primor- 

 dial form, and which is the variety ? Was Anagallis arvensis, var. phoenicla, first 

 formed or created, or was A . coerulea the primogenial form ? Or, ui other words, 

 did A. coerulea derive its being from A. phoenicia, or vice versa ? 



