HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



into wine, then at a subsequent period the Ish- 

 maelites trafficking in spicery, halm, and myrrh, 

 which they carried down fi-om GUead to Egypt 

 in the days of Joseph. There is every reason 

 to suppose that Solomon, who in his writings 

 seems to have been a warm admirer of plants 

 and flowers, Nvrote a distinct treatise on vegeta- 

 bles. Thus, in the book of Kings it is said, " He 

 spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Le- 

 banon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out 

 of the wall." Of the nature of his treatise, 

 however, we can now form no speculation. The 

 silence of sacred history, therefore, leaves us in 

 the dark with regard to the prosecution of botany 

 as a science, and for this we must turn to the 

 philosophical schools of ancient Greece. At 

 first, among this intellectual people, it was the 

 physiology of plants which was cultivated; 

 because, from the small number of plants which 

 were then known, and which among the Greeks 

 and Romans scarcely exceeded a thousand, it was 

 not found necessary to think of classifying them. 

 Besides, the views of the ancients with respect 

 to natural bodies, were entirely confined to the 

 explanation of phenomena, and to the employ- 

 ment of the objects of their research in the arts. 

 Hence in the writings of the Greek philosophers 

 which have reached us on this subject, we find 

 chiefly some physiological notions on the hfe and 

 nourishment of plants, which they endeavoured 

 to explain by analogies from the animal kingdom, 

 with speculations respecting the rank which 

 plants hold in the scale of natural bodies, and 

 respecting their relations to animals. At the 

 most flourishing period of the Greek republic, 

 there were persons called Rhizotomae, who de- 

 voted themselves exclusively to the digging of 

 roots and finding of herbs, for the advancement 

 of the arts, particularly that of medicine. Some 

 of those who, devoting themselves to the latter 

 employment, were called Pharmacopolae, seem 

 even to have issued from the schools of the phil- 

 osophers, and to have acquired for themselves a 

 comprehensive knowledge of plants ; whence, 

 also, they were called Cultivators of Physics. 

 But the greater number pursued their occupation 

 as market criers, and observed a multitude of 

 superstitious customs, on which account they 

 are rather to be regarded as traders than as men 

 who had been trained in a scientific manner. 

 The first founder of the natural science of plants 

 was undoubtedly Aristotle, who hence sometimes 

 was sumamed the Pharmacopolist, as having 

 employed himself collecting medicinal plants. 

 Unfortunately, however, his genuine works on 

 plants have perished ; a treatise on this subject, 

 attributed to him, being a forgery of the middle 

 ages. Theophrastus, the pupil of Aristotle, also 

 cultivated the science of botany after the system 

 of his gi'eat master. But he seems to have un- 

 dertaken few joitmies or travels, since he always 



appeals to the testimony of diggers of roots, the 

 cutters of wood, and the inhabitants of the 

 mountains. He wrote two works which have 

 been preserved ; one on the nature and causes of 

 vegetation, the other a history of plants. In 

 these, we do not find either a very scientific ar- 

 rangement, or precise description of the few 

 species known to him ; yet they possess no small 

 merit, as being the production of a philosopher, 

 who, almost without predecessors, endeavoured, 

 for the first time, to employ the reasoning faculty 

 upon the phenomena of the vegetable world. 

 But he found none of his disciples worthy of 

 being a successor to himself, and after Ms time 

 the science declined and was very little culti- 

 vated. 



When Greece was subdued by the Romans, 

 the knowledge of the conquered so fer passed 

 over to the victors, that the latter, who always 

 sought out only what was useful, cultivated the 

 study of plants to as great an extent as it afforded 

 advantages to the arts. In the works of the old 

 Romans, Cato, Varro, and Columella, on rural af- 

 fairs, as well as in the poetry of Virgil, we find 

 a number of plants named which were cultivated 

 in the fields and gardens. We have no reason 

 to believe, however, that the study of plants was 

 pursued with any degree of avidity among this 

 people, as the Romans, like the early Greeks, 

 were yet too much engaged in the tumult of war 

 to have acquired any considerable relish for the 

 study of natural history. And hence, the first 

 direct evidence of the existence of any inquiry, 

 that can be called strictly botanical, among the 

 Romans, is that which is furnished in the works 

 of Dioscorides and Pliny ; names well known in 

 the annals of botany, and illustrious as having 

 long been regarded by the learned as the best 

 and most infallible guides to the study of plants. 

 Dioscorides lived in the first century of the 

 Christian era. He was a physician, and followed 

 the Roman armies in their expeditions through 

 the greatest part of the Roman empire. His 

 work consists of a description of all those plants 

 known to possess medicinal virtues, and was long 

 looked up to as the source of all information on 

 this subj ect. Pliny the elder, who also flourished 

 during the same era, and occupied a conspi- 

 cuous station in the state, left behind him a 

 great work on natural history. In that part of 

 it devoted to the vegetable kingdom, the plants 

 are arranged in alphabetical order, and the des- 

 criptions of Theophrastus and Dioscorides are 

 followed. Here and there some notices are added, 

 aad plants are described which were unkno^vn 

 to his predecessors ; and he himself has informed 

 us, that, in his youth, he acquired his knowledge 

 of plants in the garden of Antonius Castor, a son 

 in law of King Dejotanus. Among the later 

 Romans, the number of persons who cultivated 

 the knowledge of nature, diminished in propor- 



