132 CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. [^^^j 



place which is called the cradle of mankind, where the earth of 

 her own accord yielded much produce with little expense of toil, 



" Fundit liumo facilem victum justissima tellus." 



Immediately or soon after the Flood, there is another proof of 

 early cultivation : " Noah began to be a husbandman, and planted 

 a vineyard,^' and indulged rather freely in the produce of his 

 toils. 



The Thorns and Thistles, the effects of the curse with which the 

 ground was cursed for man's sake, give an unpleasant, as well as 

 an adequate proof, that in the very earliest times the people must 

 have had some considerable knowledge of vegetation. 



That they knew their botanical affinities or relationships, and 

 could classify them under some antediluvian system, is highly im- 

 probable. But that they _knew some of their good and also bad 

 qualities is undoubted. Cain, the first agriculturist, cultivated 

 the useful and eradicated the noxious plants. Abel did not drive 

 his sheep on pastures in which they were likely to eat herbage 

 which caused the rot or which bred flukes. Experience and his- 

 tory, not study, were the first teachers of mankind. 



They did not collect and compare, with the design of disco- 

 vering laws of structure and development. But that they were 

 well acquainted with the natural productions of their neighbour- 

 hood is abundantly testified both by history and common sense. 



That we should at this time, so distant from that when the 

 first men lived, be able to ascertain or identify their plants with 

 certainty is simply preposterous. Botanists are not agreed about 

 the plants of Theophrastus and Pliny ; and it would be absurd 

 to expect them to agree unanimously about the plants of Adam, 

 Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Samson. 



Much of the uncertainty that exists about sacred botany, or 

 the plants named or noticed in Holy Scripture, is owing to the 

 character of the natives of the East. Olaus Celsius, who studied 

 this subject more than any other investigator, and who was a 

 profound philologist as well as a good botanist, used to lament 

 that the monks of Palestine did not devote some part of their 

 time to the composing of catalogues of their native vegetation— 

 of the productions of the mountains on which their convents 

 were situated. Good-natured author ! He did not choose to 

 expose the indolence and apathy of the Oriental races. But facts 

 are stubborn things, and they tell unpleasant truths. Many 



