10 INTRODUCTION. 



which the art of physic was first exalted to the 

 dignity of a science,, and legitimately connected 

 with the study of plants ; of which upwards of two 

 hundred species are mentioned in his works. Un- 

 der the auspices of so great and dignified an ex- 

 ample, the study of botany could not fail to be ad- 

 vanced, at least as connected with medicine, if not 

 even as connected merely with a liberal education. 

 Cratejas. Accordingly we find that Cratejas, the contemporary 

 of Hippocrates, wrote a book expressly on the sub- 

 ject of botany entitled 'PigorojuuKov, which is now, in- 

 deed, entirely lost, if we except not some small 

 fragments said to be still preserved in the imperial 

 library at Vienna.* And it is certain that the study 

 of plants was regarded as an honourable pursuit in 

 the time of Xenophon, who represents it in his 

 Cyropaedia as constituting one of the branches of 

 the education of the Persian youth. 



Aristotle. But the first of the Greek philosophers that seems 

 950 to have instituted an inquiry into the economy of 

 vegetation upon principles any thing like scien- 

 tific, was Aristotle, the venerable father of natural 

 history and prince of ancient metaphysicians ; who 

 wrote two books expressly on the subject of plants, 

 as is presumable from his own promise,^ as well as 

 evident from the quotations or references of Averoes 

 and Laertius ; but which are now, it appears, irre- 



* Willden. Prin. Bot. 413, Eng. Trans. 

 Fmincj "Law. re. A, 



