218 inSTORY OF BOTANY. 



Uons of them ; he remarked upon their different external or- 

 gans ; distinguished the seed-lobes (Cotyledons) from the leaves; 

 gave just ideas of their functions, and the offices of the root. 

 He explained their anatomy as well as possible without the as- 

 sistance of the microscope, which (as the science of optics was 

 then unknown) had not been invented. Theophrastus seemed 

 too much inclined to compare the structure of vegetables to that 

 of animals ; imagining that he found in plants bones and arte- 

 ries. A shrub which grows in the Antilles is named Theophras- 

 ta, in honor of this ancient botanist. Dioscorides, a physician 

 of Greek extraction, about the commencement of the Christian 

 era, travelled over Gfeece, Asia Minor, and Italy, in order to 

 observe the plants of those countries ; his works w^ere written in 

 Greek: he divided plants into four classes, viz. : l^U aromatic; 

 ^^^ vinous ; Sd^ 'inedicinal ; ^\h.^ alimentary ot nutritious. The 

 labors of this botanist were of little value on account of want of 

 method in his descriptions. He gave the names and properties 

 of six hundred plants ; but having no idea of species or genera, 

 his work was but a chaos of facts, w^hich were so imperfectly 

 exj^ressed as to render it impossible to apply them to use. 



333. The elder Pliny ^ who lived in the reign of Nero ^ treated 

 of the history of plants, but he neglected nature, and derived his 

 science from the works of his predecessors. False systems of 

 philosophy seemed to fetter the noblest minds, and prevent their 

 pursuing those methods of investigation which would have led 

 to a true knowledge of nature. The genius of Pliny was vast 

 and active ; he consecrated to scientific researches and literary 

 works, the leisure which 23ublic duties left him. His " History 

 of the World," which was a compilation of all the knowledge 

 of the ancients upon the subject of natural history, the only one 

 of his writings which has escaped the ravages of time and bar- 

 barians, is but a small portion of his labors. He is considered 

 faulty in recording both truth and error, often transmitting them 

 without observation or criticism, and sometimes favoring absurd 

 traditions; but his work is justly admired for the greatness of 

 its plan, which embraced the whole of nature., for the elegance 

 of its style, and for the wonderful art with which the highest 

 considerations of practical philosophy are associated with natu- 

 ral history. In the year Y9 after Christ, Pliny fell a sacrifice to 

 his desire of knowledge, in an eruption of Mount Yesuvius, 

 wishing to contemplate as near as possible so sublime a specta- 

 cle, he perished, suffocated by the sulphureous exhalations. 



334. Gcden.^ in the second century., wrote upon the medicinal 

 qualities of plants, but gave no descriptions. The love of the 

 sciences seemed, in the prosperous days of Pome, to be extin- 



Dioscorides. — 333. Pliny. — 334. Galen— Condition of science in the most prosperous days of Rime 



