VI] 



Theophrasttis and Pliny 



137 



Pliny was not, strictly speaking, a medical botanist, but 

 at the same time he may be mentioned in this connection, 

 since his interest in plants was essentially utilitarian. Like 

 Theophrastus, he begins his account of plants with the 

 trees, but his reason for so doing is profoundly different 

 from that of the Greek writer, and illustrates the divergence 

 between what we may call the anthropocentric and the 



Text-fig. 64. "Buglossa" [Ortus Sanitatis, 

 Mainz, 1491]. 



scientific outlook upon the plant world. Theophrastus 

 placed trees at the head of the vegetable kingdom, because 

 he considered their organisation the highest, and most 

 completely expressive of plant nature ; Pliny, on the other 

 hand, began with trees because of their great value and 



