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"Some are downy as mulberry, some leafy (with petals) as apple. 

 Some consist of a single leaf as morning glory. The thistle has 

 a flower attached to each seed." In his will Theophrastus be- 

 queathed his garden to his friends and to all those who will 

 spend their time with them in learning and philosophy, and 

 expressed his desire to be buried there. Eighteen hundred years 

 were to pass before more extensive botanical studies were made. 



Dioscorides was a Greek physician of the first century A.D. 

 From his writings it is evident that he traveled widely. His 

 work on medical plants was considered an infallible authority 

 for sixteen centuries; numerous editions and commentaries in 

 many languages have been published. 



Pliny the Elder was a Roman admiral, killed by the eruption 

 of Vesuvius, A. D. 79. His interesting but inaccurate Historia 

 Naturalis describes the world, heavenly bodies, geography, 

 animals and plants, accompanied by numerous anecdotes. 

 Books XH-XXVn deal with plants, especially trees and medi- 

 cinal plants. "It now remains," he writes, "to speak of the 

 vegetable productions of the earth . . . from the forest man 

 first obtained his food . . . trees formed the first temples of the 

 gods . . . the beech is dedicated to Jupiter," etc. The great 

 prestige of Pliny's work was partly due to its being the only work 

 of its kind in Latin. 



Little was added to the knowledge of plants between the time 

 of Theophrastus and the sixteenth century. During the middle 

 ages, it has been said, the Arabs kept aflame the lamp of know- 

 ledge. Plant names such as oryza, alfalfa, alkanna and azedarac 

 testify to their studies. Writings about plants were connected 

 with their use in medicine, and often described magic and rites to 

 be used in gathering or preparing the herbs. According to the 

 curious doctrine of signatures, plants indicated their use in healing 

 as, for example, by heart-shaped or liver-shaped leaves. 



Sixteenth Century 

 The herbalists of the Rhine, Brunfels, Bock, and Fuchs, called 

 by Sprengel the German fathers of botany, were the first to 



