8 
INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY. 
to the 2 7 tli book upon plants, as well philosophically as 
historically, medically, economically, magically, &c. A 
great part of his work is nearly the same as Dioscorides, 
who, however, is never quoted by name, and therefore, 
considering the candour with which Pliny names the writers 
from whom his book was extracted, there is reason to 
think that Dioscorides and Pliny wrote about the same 
time, and both made use of the same author, either Sextius 
Niger, or Diodorus, or Julius Bassus, but more probably, 
as it would appear from certain passages in Dioscorides, 
of Niger. Pliny, however, was a mere compiler, and 
whatever knowledge of plants he might haVe acquired in 
his walks in the physic garden of Antonins Castor, it is 
certain that none of it appears in his work, which exhibits 
only a collection of memorandums badly translated from 
the Greek, in which, for want of critical and botanical 
knowledge, numerous mistakes are evident. The design 
of the work was grand, but far too vast to be accomplished 
by any one man, and especially by one immerged in public 
business. The order in which he has disposed his subjects 
is very confused. The great value of Pliny’s work, there- 
fore, consists in his having preserved to us the remains of 
ancient knowledge on the subject, and especially the ap- 
plication of it to the arts of life in those remote times, so 
that he may be considered as the historian of ancient bo- 
tany ; and to his indefatigable industry we owe the names 
of several hundred substances not mentioned by those other 
ancient writers whose works have been preserved ; although 
it must be confessed, that much of this knowledge is of little 
use, as the substances denoted by those names are un- 
known for want of descriptions. 
The next writer that occurs is Apulejus. This author, 
who lived in the second century, % w as born at Madura in 
Africa, which was then a kind of university. Pie afterwards 
studied at Carthage and Athens, and for some time applied 
himself to the profession of the law in Rome; but marrying 
a rich widow, he retired from the bar, and wholly gave 
himself up to philosophy and the practice of physic. He 
is well known as the author of “ The Golden Ass” one of 
the few works of amusement, or what is called light read- 
ing, that have descended to us from the ancients. But the 
work which entitles him to our notice is his book, De 
Herbis, sive de Nominibus et Virtutibus Herbarium In 
this work he gives the synonyms of 130 medicinal herbs in 
Greek, Latin, Egyptian, Punic, Celtic, Dacian, and of 
