10 
INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY, 
so many centuries, we need not wonder at the loss of these 
writers thus branded as nearly useless. 
The Greek writers, Oribasius, Aetius, Egineta, who suc- 
ceeded Galen, were such servile copiers of him, that they 
merit not notice. At length, after the lapse of a few cen- 
turies, the Arabs, inspired by the zeal of a new religion, 
burst from their sandy deserts, and over-run the west of 
Asia, the north of Africa, and south of Europe. As soon 
as they had formed regular establishments, they began to 
attend to the sciences, and translated the most popular 
Greek authors. 
In this they differed from the later Greeks, that being 
devoid of that superstitious veneration which the Greeks 
possessed for the writers of their golden age of literature, 
they did not confine themselves to the knowledge that had 
been delivered by those writers, but added much of their 
own. To them physicians were indebted for the introduc- 
tion into practice of berberries, cam ph ire, cloves, wall- 
flower, cassia fistula, galangals, hyssop, kermes, lavender, 
mace, manna, Persian manna, mezereon, myrobalans, nut- 
megs, nymphsea, rhubarb, opium, sugar, gum sandarac, 
red sanders, sebestens, senna, tamarinds, hops, and zedoary. 
Though some of these medical plants have fallen into de- 
suetude, others still remain, and form some of the prin- 
cipal instruments of physicians to this day. Among these 
Arab writers Serapio stands pre-eminent, although Rhazis, 
Avicena, Actuarius (who wrote in Greek), and Mesue, 
must not be forgotten ; and it may be also mentioned, to 
the honour of the Arabs, that it is to them we are indebted, 
if not for the invention, yet for the introduction of chemical 
medicines into practice, so that we may easily estimate 
the great improvements of which they were the introducers. 
The writings of Galen, and of his Greek and Arabian 
disciples, were the only ones taught in the medical schools 
of Europe, through the medium of wretched translations, 
from the seventh to the fifteenth century. As to those 
parts of natural history, not comprised in the multifarious 
materia medica of this period, the knowledge of them was 
at the lowest ebb. What little was known was a mixture 
of extracts from Pliny, and the relations of travellers who 
endeavoured to give a wonderful cast to the most common 
appearances ; who explained the mercantile names of articles 
by some fancied etymology, and then invented a tale to 
support the interpretation. In short, in the natural his- 
torians of this long period, as Hildeguard, Sylvaticus, 
