80 
PLIiS^y's NATURAL HISTOEY. 
[Book XXV. 
CHAP. 4. GREEK AUTHOES WHO HAYE DELINEATED THI2 
PLANTS IN COLOUKS. 
In addition to these, there are some Greek writers who 
have treated of this subject, and who have been already men- 
tioned on the appropriate occasions. Among them, Crateuas, 
Dionysius, and Metrodoriis, adopted a very attractive method 
of description, though one which has done little more than 
prove the remarkable difficulties which attended it. It was 
their plan to delineate the various plants in colours, and then 
to add in writing a description of the properties which they 
possessed. Pictures, however, are very apt to mislead, and 
more particularly where such a number of tints is required, 
for the imitation of nature with any success ; in addition to 
which, the diversity of copyists from the original paintings, 
and their comparative degrees of skill, add very considerably 
to the chances of losing the necessary degree of resemblance 
to the originals. And then, besides, it is not sufficient to de- 
lineate a plant as it appears at one period only, as it presents 
a different appearance at each of the four seasons of the year.^* 
CHAP. 5.— THE FIRST GREEK AUTHORS WHO WROTE UPON PLANTS. 
Hence it is that other writers have confined themselves to 
a verbal description of the plants ; indeed some of them have 
not so much as described them even, but have contented them- 
selves for the most part with a bare recital of their names, 
considering it sufficient if they pointed out their virtues and 
properties to such as might feel inclined to make further en- 
quiries into the subject. 'Nor is this a kind of knowledge 
by any means difficult to obtain ; at all events, so far as re- 
gards myself, with the exception of a very few, it has been 
my good fortune to examine them all, aided by the scientific 
researches of Antonius Castor,^^ who in our time enjoyed the 
highest reputation for an intimate acquaintance with this 
branch of knowledge. I had the opportunity of visiting his 
garden, in which, though he had passed his hundredth year, he 
cultivated vast numbers of plants with the greatest care. 
Though he had reached this great age, he had never experienced 
'^^ The four great changes in plants, though not always at the four 
seasons of the year, are the budding and foliation, the blossoming, the 
fructification, and the fall of the leaf. See end of B. xx. 
