HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



into wine, then at a subsequent period tlio Ish- 

 inaelites trafficking in spicery, balm, and myrrh, 

 which they carried down from Gilead to Egypt 

 in the days of Joseph. Tliere is every reason 

 to suppose that Solomon, who in his writings 

 seems to have been a vvann admirer of plants 

 and flowers, wrote a distinct treatise on vegeta- 

 bles. Thus, in the book of Kings it is said, "lie 

 spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Le- 

 banon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out 

 of the wall." Of the nature of his treatise, 

 however, we can now form no speculation. The 

 silence of sacred history, therefore, leaves us in 

 the dark with regard to the prosecution of botany 

 as a science, and for this we must turn to the 

 philosopliical schools of ancient Greece. At 

 fii-st, among this intellectual people, it was the 

 physiology of plants which was cultivated; 

 because, from the small number of plants which 

 were then known, and which among the Greeks 

 and Romans scarcely exceeded a thousand, it was 

 not found necessary to think of classifying them. 

 Besides, the views of the ancients with resjiect 

 to natural bodies, were entirely confined to the 

 explanation of phenomena, and to tlie employ- 

 ment of the objects of their research in the arts. 

 Hence in the writings of tlie Greek philosophers 

 which have reached us on this subject, we find 

 chiefly some physiological notions on the life and 

 nourishment of plants, which they endeavoured 

 to explain by analogies from the animal kingdom, 

 with speculations respecting the rank which 

 plants hold in the scale of natural bodies, and 

 respecting their relations to animals. At flie 

 most flourishing period of the Greek republic, 

 there were persons called Rhizotomae, who de- 

 voted themselves exclusively to the digging of 

 roots and finding of herbs, for the advancement 

 of the arts, particularly that^of medicine. Some 

 of those who, devoting themselves to the latter 

 employment, were called Pharmacopolse, seem 

 even to have issued from the schools of the phil- 

 osophers, and to have acquired for themselves a 

 comprehensive knowledge of plants ; whence, 

 also, they were called Cultivators of Physics. 

 But the greater number pursued their occupation 

 as market criers, and observed a multitude of 

 superstitious customs, on wliich account tliey 

 are rather to be regarded as traders than as men 

 who had been trained in a scientific manner. 

 The first founder of the natural science of plants 

 was undoubtedly Aristotle, who hence sometimes 

 was sumamed the Phannacopolist, as having 

 employed himself collecting medicinal plants. 

 Unfortunately, however, his genuine works on 

 pkints have perished ; a treatise on this subject, 

 attributed to him, being a forgery of the middle 

 nges. Theophrastus, the pupil of Aristotle, also 

 cultivated the science of botany after the system 

 of his gieat master. But he seems to have un- 

 dertiikcn few joumies or travels, since he always 



appeals to the testimony of diggers of roots, the 

 cuttei'S of wood, and the inhabitants of the 

 mountains. He wTote two works wliich have 

 been preserved ; one on the nature and causes of 

 vegetation, the other a history of plants. In 

 these, we do not find either a very scientific ar- 

 rangement, or precise description of the few 

 species known to him ; yet they possess no small 

 merit, as being the production of a philosopher, 

 who, almost without predecessors, endeavoured, 

 for the first time, to employ the reasoning faculty 

 upon the phenomena of the vegetable world. 

 But he found none of his disciples worthy of 

 being a successor to himself, and after his time 

 the science declined and was very little culti- 

 vated. 



When Greece was subdued by the Romans, 

 the knowledge of the conquered so far passed 

 over to the victors, that the latter, who always 

 sought out only what was useful, cultivated the 

 study of plants to as great an extent as it aff'orded 

 advantages to the arts. In the works of the old 

 Romans, Cato, Varro, and Columella, on rural af- 

 fairs, as well as in the poetry of Virgil, we find 

 a number of plants named which were cultivated 

 in the fields and gardens. We have no reason 

 to believe, however, that the study of plants was 

 pursued with any degree of avidity among this 

 people, as the Romans, like the early Greeks, 

 were yet too much engaged in the tumult of war 

 to have acquired any considerable relish for the 

 study of natural history. And hence, the first 

 direct evidence of the existence of any inquiry, 

 that can be called strictly botanical, among the 

 Romans, is that which is furnished in the works 

 of Dioscorides and Pliny ; names w:ell known in 

 the annals of botany, and illustrious as having 

 long been regarded by the learned as the best 

 and most infallible guides to the study of plants. 

 Dioscorides lived in the first century of the 

 Christian era. He was a physician, and followed 

 the Roman armies in their expeditions through 

 the greatest part of the Roman empire. His 

 work consists of a description of all those plants 

 known to possess medicinal virtues, and was long 

 looked up to as the source of all information on 

 this sul)ject. Pliny the elder, who also flourished 

 during the same era, and occupied a conspi- 

 cuous station in tlie state, left behind him a 

 great work on natural history. In that part of 

 it devoted to the vegetable kingdom, the plants 

 are arranged in alphabetical order, and the des- 

 criptions of Theophrastus and Dioscorides are 

 followed . Here and there some notices are added, 

 and plants are described which were unknown 

 to his predecessors ; and he himself has informed 

 us, tliat, in his youth, he acquired his knowledge 

 of plants in the garden of Antonius Castor, a son 

 in law of King Dejotanus. Among the- later 

 Romans, the number of persons who cultivated 

 the knowledge of nature, diminished in proper- 



