xlviii INTRODUCTION. 



2.. THE PLACE OF THESE LISTS IN THE RUN 

 OF THAT HISTORY. 



From the decay of the Roman Empire 

 down to the latter years of the fifteenth 

 century, botanical knowledge was almost 

 stationary; nor was anything added to the 

 old stores except such barbarous names as 

 from time to time attached themselves to 

 the Lists through the practice of Medicine 

 in the different nations and languages of 

 Europe. Our Lists give us an idea of the 

 Herbals of this long interval. The first 

 List is from the Table of Chapters of an 

 Anglo-Saxon version of the Herbarium of 

 Apuleius. It is a production of the tenth 

 or early eleventh century. This book may 

 represent to us the link between the 

 Roman and the Saxon Herbal. But it 

 is only a late representative of that con- 

 nection. We find traces of much older 

 knowledge of Roman plant-names. Some 

 of the Anglo- Saxon names indicate an old 

 acquaintance with Latin herb-lore. It 

 seems only reasonable to surmise that the 

 knowledge of Roman botany and medicine 



