HISTORY OF BOTANY. 
215 
rally seeks for information respecting its origin and the prog- 
ress hy which it advanced from the first rude conc^vpciona 
97hich might have been formed, to its gradual development 
and comparative perfection. The history of the progress of a 
science makes a part of the science itself ; we are interesced in 
the various efforts of philosophers, their experience and observa- 
tions, and the trains of reasoning by which they arrived at those 
conclusions which constitute the basis of the science. In Botany, 
as in the other sciences, physical wants were the first guides ; 
man at first sought to find in vegetables, food, then remedies for 
diseases, and lastly, amusement and instruction. 
329. The first account of plants may be traced to the history 
of the creation by Moses. It was on the third day of this great 
work that God said, " Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb 
yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, 
whose seed is in itself^ upon the earth : and it was so ; ana the 
earth brought forth grass, and the herb yielding seed aftei his 
kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after 
his kind ; and God saw that it vms good.'''' After this, it is re- 
corded, that God gave to Adam every herb and every tree hea/r- 
ing fruit ; the latter was for him exclusively, but to the beasts 
of the earth, and the fowls of the air, and to every thing wherein 
there is life, he also gave the green herb for meat. Adam, ac- 
cording to Holy Scripture, gave names to all the beasts of the 
field, and the fowls of the air ; and Milton imagines, that to Eve 
was assigned the pleasant task of giving names to flowers and 
numbering the tribes of plants. When our first parents, as a 
punishment for their disobedience, are about to leave their de- 
lightful Eden, Eve, in the language of the poet, with bitter re 
gret exclaims : 
" Must I thus leave thee, Paradise ? 
***** Oh flowers 
That never -will in other diniate grow, 
* * which I bred up with tender hand, 
From the first opening bud, and gave ye names ; 
Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank 
Your tribes r' 
330. The Bible and the poems of Homer afford us the onlj» 
vestiges of the botanical knowledge of the earliest ages of the 
world. Great advantages were afibrded to the Jews for obtain- 
ing a knowledge of plants, in their long wanderings over the 
face of the earth before they settled in Judea. When in posses- 
sion of that fertile country they extended their intercourse with 
foreign nations ; the vessels of Solomon frequented the shores ot 
the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the East Indian islands. In 
329. First account of plants traced to the history of the creation — Milton imagines that Eve 
gave names to the plants. — 330. What is known of the progress of botany during the earliest a^-es ot 
the world '? 
