Method. 317 
mentioned by foregoing writers ; but many 
of thefe are unknown. There is no fcien- 
tific order in the difpofition of his fab- 
jed- ; and the great value of Pliny's work 
coniifts in having preferved to us the re- 
mains of antient knowledge on the fubjed:; 
and in particular, the application of it to 
the arts of life, in thofe remote times. 
After the revival of learning in the fif- 
teenth century, the flrft cultivators of bo- 
tany ftudied plants more in the writings of 
thefe fathers, than in the book of nature ; 
and u^ere folely anxious about extricating 
the plants of the Materia Medica ; fcarcely 
adverting to thofe ftriking difcriminations 
in the general port, mein, or habit, the 
mode of growing, and other obvious rela- 
tions, which mark the grcat natural fami- 
lies in the vegetable kingdom : but were con- 
tent to arrange them, fome, according to the 
alphabetical nomenclature, others, from the 
flrudlure of the root, the time of flowering, 
the places of growth, the fuppofed qualities, 
and ufes in medicine ; or from other as un- 
liable diftindions. With them, as with 
the anticnts, there were nearly as many ge-^ 
1 
