HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



299 



natural bodies, were entirely confined to the explanation of 

 phenomena, and to the employment of physical substances in 

 arts and trades : and, in the last place, because the physics of 

 plants, like physics in general, were then derived from mere 

 processes of reasoning. It is hence that, in the writings and 

 fragments of the Greek philosophers, we find chiefly some phy- 

 sical notices respecting the life and nourishment of plants, 

 which they endeavoured to explain by the analogy of the ani- 

 mal kingdom ; and along with these many happy ideas re- 

 specting the rank which plants hold in the scale of natural 

 bodies, and respecting their relations to external animals. 



At the time when the Athenian Republic was in its most 

 flourishing condition, it is true that several persons, who were 

 called Rhizotomae, devoted themselves exclusively to the dig- 

 ging of roots and finding of herbs, for the advancement of 

 arts, and particularly of medicine. Some of these persons, 

 who were called Pharmacopolae, seem even to have issued from 

 the schools of the philosophers, and to have acquired for them- 

 selves a comprehensive knowledge of plants, whence they 

 were called Cultivators of Physics. But the greater number 

 pursued their occupation as market-cry ers, 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, 



431. 



The first founder of the natural science of plants, was un- 

 doubtedly Aristotle of Stagira, to whom the nick-name of 

 Pharmacopolist was even given, because, for a long time, he 

 employed himself in collecting medicinal plants. But his ge- 

 nuine works respecting plants have been lost, and what we 

 now possess under this name, is but the insipid forgery of an 

 ignorant Greek of the middle ages. 



Aristotle's follower and favourite scholar, Tyrtamus of 

 Lesbos, to whom his master gave the name of Theophrastus, 

 on account of his eloquence, drew his principles, undoubtedly, 

 from the information of his great teacher. He also cultivated 

 the knowledge of plants entirely after the fashion of the Peri- 



