HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



who acquired immortal fame by his moral charafteristic sketches. He 

 ■was born at Eresm, in the island of Lesbos ; lived in the third century 

 before the birth of Christ (between the 97th and 1 23d Olympiad j>, 

 and was a disciple of Plato and Aristotle. Through his distin- 

 guished talents he became dear to the latter, who constituted him heir, 

 to his library, and successor m the Peripatetic school. He preferred the 

 love of Nature to the abstruse pursuits of philosophy. He undertook, 

 several journies for the purpose of promoting natural knowledge; and 

 the fruits of his labours terminated in two valuable works on natural 

 history and the generation of plants*, which have been preserved to 

 tliis day. In these he gives a descriptive account of upwards of 

 500 plants. A century before him Hippocrates had already been 

 the pride of his nation ; but the studies and discoveries of this origi- 

 nal genius were almost exclusively confined to the human frame, its 

 diseases and cures. K& the oracle of the sick, whose advice and at- 

 tendance was requested from all quarters, he chiefly bestowed his atten- 

 tion on those productions of Nature, which, by their medical virtues, 

 ivere calculated to engross his principal concern* 



Thus Theoprastus was and remained the first learned botanist who 

 flourished in Greece during its independence and republican freedom. 

 The fall of the latter had for its mediate consequence the decline of 

 the sciences. Several centuries elapsed without Theophrastus hav- 

 ing a successor or rival of his. fame. At last an Asiatic arrogated to 



Ui^i (pwTfjii iffo^Mi, seu Historise Plantarum, lib. ix. cum commentar. J. C. Scaligeri et 

 J. BoD^i a Stapel, Amsterdam 1644. Of the xth book we have only fragments. 

 (foiT^X'^i ciinav 0iB^ix *j, seu de Causis Plantarum, lib. vi. His complete Greek works first 

 appeared with those of Aristotle at Fenice, hy A. Manvce, from 1495 till 149};, six 

 volumes in folio. The best Latin translation is that of Dan. Heihsius, Lejden, 1613. 



himself 



