HISTORY OF BOTANY. 
‘279 
placed; it would rather seem in many cases, as if the links of 
the chain had been broken or disunited. 
Aristotle considered plants as intermediate between inorgan iz- 
ed matter and animals. Plants, he said, are not distinguished 
from animals in being destitute of the seat of life, the heart ; be- 
cause of this, the reptiles and inferior order of animals are also 
destitute. Plants have no consciousness of themselves, or organs 
of sense to know what is out of themselves ; animals possess 
these faculties, therefore Aristotle says they are different. We 
think it would have been difficult for him to have discovered any 
evidence of consciousness in the sponge, or any marks by which 
it might appear that this animal substance (for such it is thought 
to be,) has any knowledge of any tiling external to itself. How- 
ever great may be the veneration entertained for the opinions of 
Aristotle, we believe his distinction between plants and animals 
will at this time find no supporters. This philosopher publish- 
ed his works on natural history about 384 years before Christ. 
Theophrastus, the friend and pupil of Aristotle, published a 
great number of learned works; among others “A History of 
Plants and “ The Causes of Vegetation .” lie treated sepa- 
rately of aquatic plants, of parasites , of culinary herbs , and of 
fowering plants ; he remarked upon the uses of each plant, the 
place tvliere it grew, and whether it was woody or herbaceous. 
He had no idea of genera or species ; his names were merely lo- 
cal, and his descriptions generally indefinite. His views upon 
the Physiology of plants , were superior to his descriptions of 
them ; he remarked upon their different external organs ; distin- 
guished the seed lobes, (Cotyledons,) from the leaves ; gave just 
ideas upon their functions, and upon the offices of the root. He 
explained their anatomy , as well as possible, without the assist- 
ance of the microscope, which, (as the science of optics was 
then unknown,) had not been invented. Theophrastus seemed 
too much inclined to compare the structure of vegetables to that 
of animals ; imagining that he found in plants, bones, veins and 
arteries. 
A physician of Greek extraction, Dioscorides, travelled over 
Greece, Asia Minor and Italy, in order to observe the plants of 
those countries ; his works were written in Greek ; he divided 
plants into four classes, viz : 1st, aromatic , 2d, vinous, 3d, me- 
dicinal, and 4th, alimentary or nutritious. The labors of this 
botanist were of little value, in after times, on account of want 
of method in his descriptions. He gave the names and proper- 
ties of 603 plants, but having no idea of species or genera, his 
work was but a chaos of facts, which were so imperfectly ex- 
pressed as to render it impossible to apply them to use. 
1 
Theophrastus — Dioscorides — 
