INTRODUCTION 



For Book XX the chief MSS. are FdE, \vith help 

 from V from § 186, and from G (§§ 162-186). For 

 XXI the MSS. are VGdRE to § 161, where E has a 

 gap, and x begins. For XXII we have VdxR to § 65, 

 VdRE to § 71, VGdRE to § 135, VdRE to § 144 and 

 VdE to the end. For XXIII we rely on V, d and E. 



For the Botanical books and also for sonie other 

 parts of Pliny, the textual critic is lielped by Dios- 

 corides and Theophrastiis, but niost of all by the 

 Medicina of Gargilius MartiaHs, publiijhed, with a 

 book of prescriptions attributed to Plinius lunior 

 (Secundus), by Valentin Rose in 1875. Both are 

 taken largely from the Natural History, or perhaps 

 from its original sources, thus affording evidence 

 that is independent of our MSS. Unfortunately, the 

 prescriptions are not verbal quotations, but para- 

 phrases or summaries, given without naming the 

 sources. Rose's edition was the first to be pubHshed, 

 and Detlefsen could make no use of it ; Mayhofftends 

 to attach too much importance to both PHnius 

 lunior and Gargilius. The first sentence of the 

 former is worth quoting, both because it explains 

 why kiymen in antiquity were sei'iously interested 

 in medicine, and also because it presents some 

 curious parallels to modern patent medicines. 

 " Frequenter mihi in peregrinationibus accidit ut 

 aut propter meam aut propter meorum infirmitatem 

 varias fraudes medicorum experiscerer," quibusdam 

 viHssima remedia ingentibus pretiis vendentibus. 

 aHis ea quae curare nesciebant cupiditatis causa 

 suscipientibus. " 



The value of such excerptors from PHny for the 

 reconstruction of the text is stressed by D. J. Camp- 



" iS'iV., with a v.l. experirer. 



XXV 



