HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



301 



school, and employed themselves, as formerly, in the digging 

 of roots, — a low and superstitious trade. 



The kings Mithridates, Eupator of Pontus, and Attalus 

 Philometer of Pergamus, promoted, to a certain extent, the 

 knowledge of plants, by maintaining botanical gardens, in 

 which they reared poisonous plants, and made experiments 

 with other plants, as antidotes to poison. In the courts of 

 these kings lived the two most learned rhizotomse of antiquity, 

 Cratevas, and Nicander of Colophon. The work of the for- 

 mer exists only in manuscript. But Nicander has left us two 

 very obscure works respecting poisons and antidotes, both of 

 which have been excellently edited by Schneider, in and 

 1816. 



433. 



After Greece was subdued by the Romans, the knowledge 

 of the conquered so far passed over to the victors, that the 

 latter, who always sought out only what was useful, cultiva- 

 ted the study of plants to as great an extent, as it afforded 

 advantages to the arts and trades. 



In the works of the old Romans, Cato, Varro, and Co- 

 lumella, respecting Rural Economy, the best editions of which 

 are those published by Schneider, in 1794; as also, in the Geor- 

 gics and Eclogues of Virgil, we find a multitude of plants 

 named, which were useful in horticulture and agriculture. 

 It is much to be lamented, that we no longer possess the wri- 

 tings of the younger Juba, king of Mauritania, whom Caesar 

 had caused to be educated in Rome. These works consisted 

 of a Treatise on the History of Nature, — a Description of the 

 Canary Isles, which were discovered by him, — Notices re- 

 specting Lybia, — and a History of Arabia. According to the 

 testimony of the ancients, he described plants, on all occasions, 

 with the most scrupulous care. 



434. 



The most celebrated writer among the oldest botanists, 

 is Pedacius Dioscorides, of Anazarbus, in Silicia. He lived 

 in the middle of the first century of our jera, was a phy- 



