Botanic Gardens. 61 



history of plants, is often ascribed the honour of esta- 

 blishing the first public Botanic Garden, which he 

 bequeathed to his pupils. A disciple of Plato and of 

 Aristotle, he is said to have had the profundity of 

 the latter, with the fascinating eloquence of Plato ; 

 and Aristotle named him Theophrastus, or the Divine 

 teacher. 



"We read that Attalus Philometor, king of Per- 

 gamus, and Mithridates Eupator, of Pontus, vied 

 with each other in establishing gardens for cultiva- 

 tion of poisonous plants and their antidotes ; and 

 biography tells us of one of the most fascinating 

 female sovereigns of antiquity being not a little 

 practised in such arts. When Antony was in 

 Egypt, abandoning himself to the guidance of Cleo- 

 patra, he feared and distrusted her, and insisted on 

 her tasting viands which she had presented to him. 

 On one occasion, deriding the futility of his precau- 

 tion, she placed a chaplet on his head, and in the 

 course of the banquet invited him to throw the 

 flowers into his goblet, and quaff them with the 

 wine. When about to pledge her, she abruptly 

 stopped him, and commanded a condemned criminal 

 to swallow the draught. The flowers had been 

 steeped in poison ; the wretch fell dead at her feet. 



The language of Pliny the elder, in his elaborate 

 work on Natural History of Plants, written at the 

 commencement of this era, is so applicable to our 

 day, that I venture to quote a few lines. He asks 

 " Who does not readily admit, that now, when inter- 



