38 CHAPTER 3. 
TIANI, and Others, The Exercttatmes 
Pliniana of Salmasius, are well known. 
Thofe of the laborious and paradoxical 
Harduin, are the principal refort of mo-, 
dern times. 
It is a mortifying reflexion in the annals 
of human knowledge, that the bulk of thefc 
learned men, after their immenfe labours, 
miftook, in numberlefs inftances, the road 
to truth, and did but perplex the fcience 
they wifhed to enlighten. The defcriptions 
of plants in the antient authors, were, at 
beft, fhort, vague, and infufficient and 
with this inconvenience, the ftudy of nature 
herfelf was negledted. In the mean time, 
there arofe a genuine fet of cultivators, 
Xvho, difcovering this error of the commen- 
tators, ftudied plants in the fields, where 
alone the beft comments could be made. 
As the foremoft of thefe, ftands Bruns- 
FELsius. He was followed by Tragus, 
FucHsius, KaL Cordus, Gesner, C^- 
SALPiNus, and above all Clusius, to 
whom muft be added our own countryman 
Turner. Still, even among thefe genuine 
reftorers of natural knowledge, many did 
not 
