296 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



The library collected by the Attalic kings of 

 Pergamus, and the Alexandrian Museum, founded 

 and supported by the Ptolemies of Egypt, rather 

 fostered the commentatorial spirit than promoted 

 the increase of any real knowledge of nature. The 

 Romans, in this as in other subjects, were practical, 

 not speculative. They had, in the times of their 

 national vigour, several writers on agriculture, who 

 were highly esteemed ; but no author, till we come 

 to Pliny, who dwells on the mere knowledge of 

 plants. And even in Pliny it is easy to perceive 

 that we have before us a writer who extracted his 

 information principally from books. This remark- 

 able man s , in the middle of a public and active life, 

 of campaigns and voyages, contrived to accumulate, 

 by reading and study, an extraordinary store of 

 knowledge of all kinds. So unwilling was he to 

 have his reading and note-making interrupted, that> 

 even before day-break in winter, and from his lit- 

 ter as he travelled, he was wont to dictate to his 

 amanuensis, who was obliged to preserve his hand 

 from the numbness which the cold occasioned, by 

 the use of gloves 9 . 



It has been ingeniously observed, that we may 

 find traces in the botanical part of his Natural 

 History, of the errours which this hurried and broken 

 habit of study produced ; and that he appears fre- 

 quently to have had books read to him and to have 

 heard them amiss 10 . Thus, among several other 



* Sprengel, i 163 9 Plin. Jun. Epist 3. 5 



10 Sprengel, i. 163. 



