THE 



EDINBURGH ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 



BOTANY. 



Botany. BOTANY, deriving its name from the Greek word 

 * - y - - fttnttn, grass, is that branch of natural science, which 

 Definition. t eacnes us the properties, relations, and general CECO- 

 nomy of what is usually called the vegetable kingdom, 

 and which, at the same time, by presenting the in- 

 numerable individuals of which this kingdom consists, 

 in a form of arrangement that brings them easily 

 within the reach of our comprehension, enables us in 

 practice, both to designate them by their proper 

 names, and to avail ourselves of what is known con- 

 cerning their medical or oeconomical uses. 



HISTORY. 



History. That men were led, from the earliest times, to pay 



some attention to the herbs and trees growing spon- 

 taneously around them, is a circumstance so natural 

 as hardly to require that we should say any thing in 

 proof of it. Their dependence on the vegetable 

 kingdom for a part of their food, as well as their in- 

 nate desire to improve their situation, could not fail, 

 even in the least favourable state of society, to make 

 them distinguish a few such plants as they had found 

 to be useful, in order to their afterwards having re- 

 course to them. And in proportion as civilization 

 advanced, and property, now recognised, began to be 

 put under the protection of law, the inducements to 

 extend their discoveries in a branch of knowledge 

 which promised to be of so much advantage to them, 

 would continue to multiply. A spirit of inquiry, 

 provoked by self-intejest, and encouraged by the 

 prospect of security in .what regards possession, would 

 begin to manifest itself. The ornamental and un- 

 common, as well as the medicinal and more necessary 

 tribes of vegetables, which are, of course, the first 

 objects of attention in the earlier periods of society, 

 would come, in process of time, to be sought after 

 and cultivated ; and the catalogue of discovery, which 

 had hitherto consisted of little else than a few rude 

 names, would gradually assume a more enlarged and 

 interesting form. 

 VOL. IV. FART I. 



At length, when a state of independence had se- 

 cured to individuals a sufficient portion of unoccupied 

 time, curiosity would naturally take a wider range ; 

 and the sum of that knowledge, which till now had 

 been chiefly the result of accident, or, at least, of a 

 confined sort of observation, would receive frequent 

 additions from the labours of men, who devoted them- 

 selves, from choice, to the business of inquiry. New 

 plants would be collected ; the habit and virtues of 

 such as were already known, would be carefully ex- 

 plored ; and the result of these researches, being at 

 length committed to writing, along with the facts 

 and circumstances which had been otherwise brought 

 to light, would constitute the first proper rudiments 

 of Tiotanical history. 



Such, we have reason to believe, has been the usual 

 progress of discovery. And on looking back to that 

 period in the history of nations, to which we are re- 

 ferring, we accordingly find, that the degree to which 

 those who enjoyed any facilities of study, had pushed 

 their acquaintance with the vegetable kingdom, was 

 often considerable. Among the Jews, for instance, 

 Moses and Solomon, who hved comparatively in the 

 infant state of science, bestowed much attention on 

 plants ; and by way of giving us some, idea of the 

 attainments which the latter, more especially, had 

 made in this sort of knowledge, it is said in scripture 

 that " he spoke of trees from the cedar in Lebanon, 

 even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." 

 Among the Persians, in like manner, Zoroaster, their 

 celebrated lawgiver, was extensively conversant with 

 botanical studies ; and the same may be said of He- 

 siod, Solon, Pythagoras, and Crateras; but more par- 

 ticularly of Hippocrates and Aristotle among the 

 Greeks. 



Of botany, as a science, there is, however, little or 

 . nothing on record that has come down to our times, 

 except a few fragments of a work of Aristotle, of an 

 older date than the age of Theophrastus. This ele- 

 gant scholar, who was born at Eresium in the island 

 of Lesbos, about 371 years before Clirist, was the 



A 



Botany. 



Early his- 

 tory of bo- 

 tany. 



Labours 

 of Theo- 

 phrastus. 

 Born 



A.C. 37 J. 

 Died 

 A f. 2M< 



