300 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



The affinity of the Syriac and Arabic languages 

 made the task of instruction more easy. The 

 Nestorians translated the works of the ancients 

 out of the former into the latter language : hence 

 there are still found Arabic manuscripts of Diosco- 

 rides, with Syriac words in the margin. Pliny and 

 Aristotle likewise assumed an Arabic dress; and 

 were, as well as Dioscorides, the foundation of 

 instruction in all the Arabian academies; of which 

 a great number were established throughout the 

 Saracen empire, from Bokhara in the remotest east, 

 to Marocco and Cordova in the west. After some 

 time, the Mohammedans themselves began to trans- 

 late and extract from their Syriac sources; and 

 at length to write works of their own. And thus 

 arose vast libraries, such as that of Cordova, which 

 contained 250,000 volumes. 



The Nestorians are stated 16 to have first esta- 

 blished among the Arabs those collections of medi- 

 cinal substances (Apothecce], from which our term 

 Apothecary is taken; and to have written books 

 (Dispensatoria} containing systematic instructions 

 for the employment of these medicaments ; a word 

 which long continued to be applied in the same 

 sense, and which we also retain, though in a modi- 

 fied application (Dispensary}. 



The directors of these collections were supposed 

 to be intimately acquainted with plants ; and yet, in 

 truth, the knowledge of plants owed but little to 

 16 Sprengel, i. 205. 



