80 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXY. 



CHAP. 4. GREEK AUTHORS WHO HATE DELINEATED THE 



PLANTS IN COLOURS. 



In addition to these, there are some Greek writers who 

 have treated of this subject, and who have been already men- 

 tioned on the appropriate occasions. Among them, Crateuas, 

 Dionysius, and Hetrodorus, adopted a very attractive method 

 of description, though one which has done little more than 

 prove the remarkable difficulties which attended it. It was 

 their plan to delineate the various plants in colours, and then 

 to add in writing a description of the properties which they 

 possessed. Pictures, however, are very apt to mislead, and 

 more particularly where such a number of tints is required, 

 for the imitation of nature with any success ; in addition to 

 which, the diversity of copyists from the original paintings, 

 and their comparative degrees of skill, add very considerably 

 to the chances of losing the necessary degree of resemblance 

 to the originals. And then, besides, it is not sufficient to de- 

 lineate a plant as it appears at one period only, as it presents 

 a different appearance at each of the four seasons of the year. 10 



CHAP. 5. THE FIRST GREEK AUTHORS WHO WROTE UPON PLANTS. 



Hence it is that other writers have confined themselves to 

 a verbal description of the plants ; indeed some of them have 

 not so much as described them even, but have contented them- 

 selves for the most part with a bare recital of their names, 

 considering it sufficient if they pointed out their virtues and 

 properties to such as might feel inclined to make further en- 

 quiries into the subject. Nor is this a kind of knowledge 

 by any means difficult to ' obtain ; at all events, so far as re- 

 gards myself, with the exception of a very few, it has been 

 my good fortune to examine them all, aided by the scientific 

 researches of Antonius Castor, 11 who in our time enjoyed the 

 highest reputation for an intimate acquaintance with this 

 branch of knowledge. I had the opportunity of visiting his 

 garden, in which, though he had passed his hundredth year, he 

 cultivated vast numbers of plants with the greatest care. 

 Though he had reached this great age, he had never experienced 



10 The four great changes in plants, though not always at the four 

 seasons of the year, are the budding and foliation, the blossoming, the 

 fructification, and the fall of the leaf. n See end of B. xx. 



