^0 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



This curious law was passed in order to prevent 

 the education of the people being advanced, and 

 the result was that Theophrastus and several other 

 teachers left Athens. Good sense, however, seems 

 to have prevailed over ignorance and hostility to 

 learning, and the law was abolished in the following 

 year. Moreover, the proposer of it was fined the 

 great sum of five talents for his folly. Then Theo- 

 phrastus returned to Athens, and taught there until 

 he died. The whole population followed his body 

 to the grave. 



It is a remarkable fact that the writings of 

 Aristoteles and Theophrastus on plants, were not 

 improved upon for many hundreds of years. They 

 were both observers of nature, and their works 

 contained all the knowledge on the subject, of their 

 time. When the Romans obtained the supremacy 

 in Europe, and had possessions in Asia and in 

 Africa, men were not found amongst them who 

 could add to the knowledge of the Greeks about 

 plants ; so the books of the two great men who 

 were the fathers of botany were simply copied by 

 their successors, or criticized, and doubtful novelties 

 were added. 



There were many Roman writers on agriculture, 

 but few wrote on the nature and structure of plants, 

 and amongst them the most celebrated was Caius 

 Plinius Secundus, commonly called Pliny the Elder. 



Where this great man was born is not known, 

 but possibly it was at Como. He was of noble 

 family, entered the army, and became a dis- 



