
273 
The Natural History of Pliny. Translated, with Copious Notes 
and Illustrations, by the late Joun Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., and 
H. T. Ritey, Esq., B.A. Vol. ITV. Bohn’s Classical Library. 
Price 5s. 
We are indebted to the ancient physicians and herbalists (rh7- 
zotomi) for the scanty information we possess of the botanical 
knowledge of early times. Hippocrates notices about 150 species 
of plants, mostly officinals,—plants employed for dietetic or cu- 
rative purposes. The major part of these are plants pretty well 
identified as species known in the present day. Aristotle, the 
facile princeps of the philosophers of antiquity, is said to have 
composed a work on Botany; and in his genuine works there are 
manifest proofs that his observations on this kingdom of nature, 
independently of his high order as a systematic original writer, 
eminently qualified him for laying the foundation of botanical 
science, and for becoming the father of Botany. This honour 
however belongs to Theophrastus, the observant pupil of the 
father of systematic philosophy and prince of naturalists. Theo- 
phrastus, the author of two treatises on plants, viz. ‘ Historia 
Plantarum’ (the history of plants) and ‘De Causis Plantarum’ 
(concerning the causes of plants), was born in the year 370 before 
our era,—in a year memorable for the famous battle of Leuctra. 
In his works about four hundred plants are either described or 
noticed. He succeeded Aristotle as the head of the Peripatetic 
school at Athens; and this celebrated seat of learning long flou- 
rished under his presidency. After the subversion of. the liber- 
ties of Greece, Grecian science and literature found an asylum 
at Alexandria under the patronage of the Ptolemies, the Greek- 
Egyptian rulers of that portion of the empire of Alexander the 
Great. 
To the school of Alexandria we are indebted for the next im- 
portant work on Botany, at least the next in the Greek language. 
Dioscorides, like Theophrastus, collected the observations of his 
predecessors, and increased them with his own during his travels 
in Asia, Greece, Italy, and Gaul. This work may be called the 
Pharmacopeia of his time; and the names of his editors, com- 
mentators, and translators would fill a sheet. This celebrated 
ancient Botanist flourished in the times of Nero, when the fa- 
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