BOOK XXVII 



I. Thk mere treatment of this subject undoubtedly Tkebounty 

 increases the admiration that I at least feel for the "/^«'"'■'^- 

 men of old ; the greater the number of plants waiting 

 to be described, the more one is led to revere the 

 careful research of the ancients and their kindness in 

 passing on the results. Without a doubt even the 

 bounteousness of Nature herself might seem to have 

 been surpassed by them in this way if the dis- 

 coveries had been the result of human endeavour. 

 But as it is, it is clear that this bounteousness 

 has been the work of the gods, or at least due to 

 their inspiration, even when the actual discoverer 

 was a man, and that the same Mother of all things 

 both produced the herbs and made them known 

 to us. This is the greatest miracle of hfe, if we 

 care to admit the truth. To think that" the Scythian 

 plant, for example, is brought from the marshes of 

 Maeotis, euphorbea from Mount Atlas and from 

 beyond the pillars of Hercules, where the works of 

 Nature actually begin to fail ; on another side 

 britannica, from islands in the ocean lying beyond the 

 mainland, aethiopis too from the chme scorched by 

 the constellations of heaven, and other plants more- 

 over passing hither and thither from all quarters 

 throughout the whole world for the welfare of man- 

 kind, all owing to the boundless grandeur of the 

 Roman Peace, which displays in turn not men only 

 with their difFerent lands and tribes, but also moun- 



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