INTRODUCTION. 



§ I. THE HISTORY OP PLANT-NAMES PROM 

 THEOPHRASTUS TO THE MODERN SYSTEM- 

 ATIC NOMENCLATURE. 



In a vague inceptive way Botany has 

 been a science from immemorial time, be- 

 yond the reach of history. Early Botany 

 is inseparable from medicine, that patri- 

 archal science which has a history of 3000 

 years apart from Egyptian records. And this 

 composite science had moreover through 

 the doctrine of charms a fantastic alliance 

 with Astronomy, the only other science of 

 equal or higher antiquity. . Hence a mass 

 of unreality and charlatanism. But under 

 all the fraud of incantations and amulets, 

 and all the nauseous inventions of aimless 

 ingenuity, there existed a real and sincere 

 art of healing, which rested mainly upon a 

 knowledge of Herbs. The whole scheme 

 of primitive medicine, so far as it was 

 g^nuinoj rested upon certain sympathies 

 b 



