PRESIDENT B ADDRESS. VU 



plants and animals — a knowledge which lapsed for many ages. 

 Herodotus gives occasional information in Natm-al History. On 

 his visit to Egypt, about 400 b.c, he says he was shewn an 

 inscription on the Pyramid of Cheops, built some 3,000 years 

 before, which gave the value of the garlic, onions, and radishes 

 consumed by the labourers whilst building it — namely, one 

 thousand six huudi-ed talents of silver. He does not mention 

 the salt, however, with which the whole should be taken. 

 From his own observation, he informs us that the lotus, the 

 fi'uit of which is contained in a pod like a wasp's nest, in which 

 are berries fit to be eaten — the Neiumhiwn — and another lotus 

 are used for food ; the roots also being eaten. The byblus is an 

 annual plant, the upper parts being used for various purposes, 

 and the lower part of the stem eaten — the Egyptians cooking it 

 delicately. 



Aristotle is the first to notice plants from a biological 

 point of view. In his " History of Animals " he says : " The whole 

 genus of plants, however, compared with the other bodies, 

 appears to be nearly, as it were, animated, but, when compared 

 with an animal, to be inanimate. But the transition from 

 plants to animals is, as we have before observed, continued. 

 For, with respect to some of the bodies in the sea, it may be 

 doubted whether they are plants or animals." In a March 

 periodical of this year the writer of the scientific article says : 

 " It seems but yesterday when we regarded the sponge as a 

 vegetable product," and yet two thousand years ago Aristotle 

 classed it among animals, though, as might be expected, he had 

 not a very clear notion of its structure. 



Theophrastus, the pupil of Aristotle, is usually regarded 

 as the first Botanist. He abandoned the transcendental element 

 in his master's teaching and taught "positive" science. He 

 classed plants as herbs, trees, and shrubs, and wrote, as a 

 seventeenth century A^i-iter says, " of plants in general, their 

 aftections. parts, and differences, and not of each species in 

 particular — a hard thing," because, in his own words, "there 

 is nothing common to all plants as the mouth and belly to 



