1859.] CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. 133 



MSS. have reached the West from Egypt, from Abyssinia, Arabia, 

 Palestine, Syria, etc., but is there any of those that contain facts 

 of natural history? There may be such MSS. in existence, but 

 if there are, they are unknown even to those who have indus- 

 triously investigated the history of natural science. Again, it is 

 a fact that we are indebted to Rauwolf, Belonius, Buxbaum, 

 Tournefort, Russell, Hasselquist, Forskal, Sibthorp, Mangles, 

 Bromfield, etc., for our knowledge of the plants of Palestine and 

 Syria. The enterprise of Western travellers, or of men from the 

 nations of Italy, Germany, Prance, England, Sweden, and Den- 

 mark, has contributed the entire knowledge of Scripture plants 

 now in our hands. 



In this, Sweden bears an honourable place. Hasselquist's 

 ^Travels in Palestine/ and his 'Flora Palestina,' published by his 

 great teacher and friend, the amiable Linnseus, are still the most 

 succinct and systematic works on this interesting subject. The 

 Swedish traveller only passed through the land, and died ere he 

 reached Europe. 



The East appears to be fatal to botanists. Forskal died before 

 he had half explored Arabia. And in our own days we have had 

 to lament the loss of a countryman who may justly be ranked 

 among the most devoted of the martyrs of science. 



Olaus Celsius, the great Oriental linguist, studied sacred bo- 

 tany for above fifty years. He published many separate pieces 

 on the subject, and finally bequeathed to the botanical world his 

 ' Hierobotanicon,^ the immensely learned labour of a long life. 



The critics and commentators of our own country are to be 

 greatly commended for the light they have respectively thrown 

 on this subject ; but there is no work in existence which, for eru- 

 dition, surpasses, or even equals, that of the illustrious Swede. 



A good Flora Palestina is one of our desiderata. When will 

 the learned monks of Palestine find leisure to prepare one? 

 When they leave off their private brawls, personal quarrels, and 

 other similar non-ecclesiastical practices. But as the professed 

 subject of these chapters is the Flora of the British Isles and not 

 that of the Holy Land, a complete enumeration of the plants of 

 the latter would not be " the right matter in the right place." 

 The Flora of Palestine and the Biblical part of botany appear 

 here only as it is related with the botany of our native land. 



A sacred Phytology is a work of great magnitude, and he who 



