INTRODUCTION 



frankincense. It has been a subject of some con- 

 troversy whence he derived his accounts of plants 

 whose habitat was nearer home. Kirchner^ in an 

 able tract, combats the contention of Sprengel that 

 his observations even of the Greek flora were not 

 made at first hand. Now at this period the Peri- 

 patetic School must have been a very important 

 educational institution ; Diogenes says that under 

 Theophrastus it immbered two thousand pupils. 

 Moreover we may fairly assume that Alexander, from 

 his connexion with Aristotle, was interested in it, 

 while we are told that at a later time Demetrius 

 Phalereus assisted it financially. May we not hazard 

 and guess that a number of the students were ap- 

 propriately employed in the collection of facts and 

 observations ? The assumption that a number of 

 ' travelling students ' were so employed Avould at all 

 events explain certain references in Theophrastus' 

 botanical works. He says constantly 'The Maced- 

 onians say,' ' The men of Mount Ida say ' and so 

 forth. Now it seems hardly probable that he is 

 quoting from written treatises by Macedonian or 

 Idaean writers. It is at least a plausible suggestion 

 that in such references he is referring to reports of 

 the districts in question contributed by students 

 of the school. In that case ' The Macedonians say ' 

 would mean ' This is what our representative was 

 told in Macedonia.' It is further noticeable that 

 the tense used is sometimes past, e.g. ' The men of 

 Mount Ida said ' ; an obvious explanation of this is 



