BOOK XVIII 



I. OcR next subject is the nature of the various cereaia>rri 

 kinds of grain and of gardens and flowers and the '^i^a'r'ilcl 

 other products of Earth's bounty beside trees or bonntenus 

 shrubs, the study of herbaceous plants being itself of wan'" aluw 

 boundless scope, if one considers the variety and "f'^- 

 nuniber, the blossoms, scents and colours, and the 

 juices and properties of the plants that she engenders 

 for the health or the gratification of men. And in this 

 section it is our pleasant duty first of all to champion 

 Earth's caase and to support her as the parent of all 

 things, although we have ah-eady plcaded her defence 

 in the opcning part of this treatise. Nevertheless, ii. 164 a. 

 now that our subject itself brings us to consider her 

 also as the producer of noxious objects, they are 

 our own crimes with which we charge her and our 

 own faults which we impute to her. She has 

 engendered poisons — but who discovered them 

 except man ? Birds and beasts are content merely 

 to avoid them and keep away from them. And 

 although the elephant and the ure-ox sharpen and 

 whet their horns on a tree and the rhinoceros on a 

 rock, and boars point the poniards of their tusks 

 upon both trees and rocks, and even animals know 

 how to prepare themselves for inflicting injury, yet 

 which of them excepting man also dips its weapons 

 in poison ? A«! fnr us, we even poison our arrows 



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