302 



HISTORY OF BOTANY, 



sician, and followed the Roman armies in their expeditions 

 through the greatest part of the Roman empire. The work 

 of his which we possess, and the best edition of which was 

 published by Sanacenus, at Frankfort, in 1598, is entitled 

 Materia Medica, and contains, therefore, an enumeration of 

 all the medicinal plants which were known to the ancients. 

 These are arranged in rather a capricious order, and are de- 

 signated not only by the common Greek names, but also by 

 the Roman, Punic, or African, and other barbarous names : 

 they are frequently described at great length, their situation 

 assigned, and proofs of their medicinal efficacy produced. 

 This work, next to that of the elder Pliny, has exercised the 

 most enduring dominion over the schools, since it was held, 

 for more than fifteen hundred years, to be the only fountain 

 of all knowledge relat ing to natural history, and particularly 

 of botanical information. 



435. 



Caius Plinius Secundus, commonly called the Elder, a 

 commander and statesman during the middle of the first cen- 

 tury of our aera, left behind him a Summary of all Science, 

 Knowledge, and Arts, which, for the most part, he had ex-, 

 tracted from the Greek and from some Roman writers. The 

 work bears the title of a History of Nature, or of the World, 

 and the best edition of it, in ten octavo volumes, is that pub- 

 lished by Franz, after Harduin, at Leipsig, between 1778 

 and 1791. The plants are treated in it, in alphabetical or- 

 der, according to the descriptions of Theophrastus and Dios- 

 corides. Here and there also, some notices are added, and 

 plants are described, which were unknown to his predecessors ; 

 and he himself has informed us, that in his youth he acquired 

 his knowledge of plants in the garden of Antonius Castor, a 

 son-in-law of the well known King Dejotanus. 



436. 



Among the later Romans, the number of persons who cul- 

 tivated the knowledge of nature diminished, in proportion as 

 the night of barbarism descended, and, for a long time, the 



