$ INTRODUCTION. 



for the purpose of being initiated into the mysteries 

 of the knowledge of the Egyptians For as he 

 devoted himself on his return exclusively to the 

 study of nature, it is likely that the subjects of the 

 vegetable kingdom formed part of the object of his 

 researches. But it is certain they formed part of 

 the object of the researches of his immediate suc- 

 cessors ; and of the earlier leaders both of the 

 Ionian and Italian schools, with whose discussions we 

 find already mingled some of the nicest and most 

 subtle topics of phytological investigation. Their 

 opinions are however of no value as tending to the 

 advancement of science. They could not have been 

 founded on accurate observation, and certainly not 

 on the basis of any thing like philosophical experi- 

 ment. But they are important as exhibiting a new 

 and peculiar feature in the study of plants, and the 

 first legitimate evidence of the origin of phytologi- 

 A.C. cal inquiry. Of the philosophers of this period 

 who seem to have directed their attention partially, 

 at least, to the study of vegetables, I shall specify 

 only Pythagoras,* the celebrated sage of Samos, 



* Pythagoras, who is believed to have prohibited his disciples 

 from the use of beans on account of a supposed identity of origin 

 between beans and human flesh, (Hor. Sat. vi. lib. ii.) i* 

 said also to have written a Treatise on Onions j (Amat. Lusir. 

 Com. in Diosc. lib. ii. 412.) which, if true, gives him conse- 

 quently a claim to the merits of having been the first botanical 

 monographist. 



