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194 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
WA 
ing the same general characteristics, the same disposition of 
organs, the same structure of flower and fruit, constitute a group to 
which the name of genus is applied. Rosa Canina, R. Villosa, 
and F. Sabini are three different species of the same group—the — 
genus Hosa. The words oak, poplar, barley, are collective com-— 
_ mon names, which served, long before Natural Science existed, 
to designate a certain group of plants. These are true generic 
names of popular creation, which botanists have accepted because 
they were the result of exact observation. “A man of observant — 
eye and quick intelligence,” says Pyramus de Candolle, “ would 
observe certain groups in the vegetable kingdom which we call 
genera, before discerning the species.” . 
The germs of Botanical Science are to be sought for in the 
rudimentary state in very remote antiquity. In the sacred writ-_ 
ings we meet with constant allusions to the vegetable world. The 
cultivators of the science among the early Greeks and Romans — 
were not Botanists, but Rhizotome, or root-cutters, since they — 
directed their attention to the roots in search of medicinal proper- 
ties. Aristotle of Stagira, who lived four hundred years before { 
our era, may be regarded as the founder of botany ; Mithridates, 2 
several Greek kings, and the younger Juba, King of Mauritania, 
were among its cultivators. They established Botanic Gardens, " 
- some probably from love of the science, others of them in order : 
to cultivate the deadly plants from which poisonous juices were | 
obtained. Nicander of Colophon, Cato, Varro Columella, Virgil, a 
Pedacius, Diascorides of Silicia, and lastly, the elder Pliny, all — 
dwell upon the wonders of vegetation ; and war, notwithstanding . 
its desolating tendencies, was made to promote the interests of — 
science. 
To the Arabians of the twelfth century we are next indebted for 
our knowledge of botany. After them the darkness of the Middle — 
Ages set in, and it is only since the illustrious Venetian, Marco Polo, 
came to examine and describe the wonders of the East, that the 
darkness has been dispelled. He examined the treasures of Asia and 
the East Coast of Africa, described many plants of India and the 
Indian Ocean, and from his day to the present our knowledge 
the names of plants, as well as of their structure and physiology, 
, has been continually on the increase. 
