INTRODUCTION. 13 



have been at least well received, though not very 

 cordially cherished. The first vestiges of its exis- 

 tence among the Romans are discoverable in the 

 improved state of agriculture and taste for garden- 

 ing and ornamental plantations described or alluded 

 to in the works of the Latin classics, from which a 

 good deal of information may be obtained, not 

 only with regard to the then existing state of the 

 knowledge and cultivation of plants in Italy, 

 but also in the countries over which the Roman 

 arms prevailed ; as may be seen by consulting the 

 Cato Major of Cicero and the Georgics of Virgil, in 

 which the information is direct ; or even the Com- 

 mentaries of Caesar, and Annals or other works of 

 Tacitus, in which the information is incidental. 



It does not however amount to a proof that the ^, ,,-.. 

 study of plants was pursued with any great degree 

 of avidity among the Romans, as the Romans like 

 the early Greeks were yet too much engaged in the 

 tumult of war to have acquired any considerable 

 relish for the study of natural history. And hence 

 the first direct evidence of the existence of any in- 

 quiry that can be called strictly botanical among 

 the Romans is that which is furnished in the works 

 of Dioscorides andJPliny, names well known in the 

 annals of botany, and illustrious in having been 

 long regarded by the learned as the best and most 

 infallible guides to the study of plants. 



But great although their reputation deservedly And pro- 

 was, botany derived from their labours but little ad- 



