85 



spicuous situation among the royal treasures 

 which he obtained from the sacking of the 

 capital of Armenia; and I doubt much if 

 there was a more valuable acquisition made 

 to Rome by that war, which is stated by Plu- 

 tarch to have cost the Armenians 155,000 

 men : we may very justly style it the fruit of 

 the Mithridatic war. 



Botany seems to have been more studied 

 in early times by distinguished persons than 

 at present. In this instance we find the 

 conquered and the conqueror both botanists, 

 Mithridates, whom Cicero considered the 

 greatest monarch that ever sat on a throne, 

 and who had vanquished twenty-four nations 

 whose different languages he had learnt, and 

 spoke with the same ease and fluency as his 

 own, found time to write a treatise on botany 

 in the Greek language. His skill in physic 

 is well known : there is even, at this day, 

 a celebrated antidote, called Mithridate, a 

 particular translation of the account of 

 which will be found in the history of the 

 walnut* 



It was in the 68th year before the birth 

 of Christ, that Lucullus planted the cherry- 

 tree in Italy, which " was so well stocked," 

 says Pliny, " that in less than twenty-six 

 years after, other lands had cherries, even as 



2 



