Middle Ages^ 39 
not fufficiently recoiled:, that all the plants 
of DioscoRiDEs, were not thofe of Europe^ 
but principally thofe of AJia ; whilft, in- 
llead of traverling the fields of Greece, Cili-* 
day and the Eaft, they were draining all the 
defcriptions of this author, to accommo- 
date them to the vegetables of 'Europe, It 
is not ftrange that their endeavours were 
but little fuccefsful. Even, after the la- 
bours of Rauwolf, who traverfed Syria, 
Mefopotomia, Palejiine^ and /Egypt , in the 
fixteenth century, and thofe of the enlight- 
ened TouRNEFORT in the prefent, it does 
not appear^ that of the feven hundred plants 
in the Materia Me die a of Dios cor ides, 
more than four hundred, at the fartheft, are 
properly afcertained at this time. 
We learn from Pliny (lib, 25- c. 2.) 
that there were paintings of plants in his 
day ; !l3ut he complains, that, through the 
inaccuracy of copiers, they were not to be 
depended on. Saxmasius tells ys, he 
infpedled a Greek MS. of DioscpRipES 
more than a thopfand years old, in which 
^he plants were figured with fufficient ele- 
gance indeed, but with little regard to truth 
D ^ and 
