HISTORY OF BOTANY. 303 



remains, even of Greek and Roman learning, weie entirely hid. 

 The Arabians, indeed, after tliey had instituted schools 

 of learning, infirmaries, and laboratories, applied themselves 

 dihgently to the study of medicinal plants. But they drew 

 their knowledge entirely from Dioscorides, whom, however, 

 they did not peruse in the original, but in a translation which 

 had been made from a Syrian copy. But, as it is probable 

 that neither of the translators was a botanist, they could nei- 

 ther avoid the grossest mistakes, nor be of the least advantage 

 to the science. 



Nevertheless, the flourishing trade which this nation car- 

 ried on, for some centunes, from Madeira to China, made 

 them acquainted with some remarkable oriental plants, which 

 had escaped the notice of the Greeks. There were also, in 

 the western parts of the Arabian empire, some inquisitive stu- 

 dents of nature, who endeavoured to correct and to extend 

 their knowledge by travel, among whom was Ebn Beitar, a na- 

 tive of Mallaga, who flourished in the thirteenth century, 

 and whose work we possess only in manuscript. 



437. 



About the beginning of the eleventh century, the Arabians 

 became the teachers of the other nations of western Christen- 

 dom, who now formed their schools of learning according to 

 the Mahometan pattern, and translated their books from the 

 Arabian. In this manner arose a four times repeated transla- 

 tion of Dioscorides, which served as the foundation of the 

 knowledge of medicinal plants ; and we may easily imagine 

 how completely changed this work must have seemed to be, 

 and how little advantage science could gain from it. 



The first faint spark of a sure knowledge of plants gleamed 

 during this darkness of the middle ages, when, after the ex- 

 ample of the Minorite Monks, whom the Pope sent, in the 

 thirteenth century, as missionaiies into the Mogul empire, 

 and to the court of the pretended Prester John, several 

 merchants undertook the same expedition. Among these, 

 the most illustrious was Marco Polo of Venice. He exa- 

 mined, during fifty years, most of the regions of Middle 



