11 



and the lute of Pan^ tell of the clustering grape 

 and the overhanging bough. But the knowledge of 

 plants was then greatly limited^ and few, very few 

 of the wonderful creations which modern botany 

 has since disclosed, were known or regarded. 



The revelations of the Creator to the tenants of 

 Eden^ doubtless discovered to them such productions 

 of the earth as were necessary to their sustenance ; 

 but the Bible only speaks of the three general divi- 

 sions of the vegetable world into the grass^ the her'b^ 

 and the tree, and Solomon, the most celebrated for 

 his botanical knowledge, enumerates particularly the 

 Mandrake, the Cedar of Lebanon, and the Hyssop 

 that groweth on the wall, as most prominent in his 

 day. 



For centuries afterwards, Botany was but the 

 humble hand-maiden of medicine and surgery; 

 hence we find the balm of Gilead extolled in Judea 

 as the panacea of all diseases, and of more inesti- 

 mable value than all our modern panaceas for the 

 assuaging of the ills that ^flesh is heir to.' 



The heroic age added little or nothing to the 

 preceding period, unless indeed the fabled gardens 

 of the Hesperides and Alcinous, in which Homer 

 has placed ^the reddening apple, the luscious fig, the 

 glowing pomegranate, the juicy pear, the verdant 

 olive, and the bending vine, can be regarded as 

 bright exceptions — these being the offspring rather 

 of poetry than mother earths 



