5 ° 
HISTORY OF BOTANY. 
•who acquired immortal fame by his moral characteristic sketches. Fie 
•was born at Eresus , in the island of Lesbos ; lived in the third century 
before the birth of Christ (between the 97th and 123d Olympiad); 
and was a disciple of Plato and Aristotle. Through his distin- 
guished talents he became dear to the latter, who constituted him heir 
to his library, and successor in the Peripatetic school. He preferred the 
love of Nature to the abstruse pursuits of philosophy. Ide undertook, 
several journies for the purpose of promoting natural knowledge ; and 
the fruits of his labours terminated in two valuable works on natural 
history and the generation of plants*, which have been preserved to 
this day. In these he gives a descriptive account of upwards of 
500 plants. A century before him Hippocrates had already been 
the pride of his nation ; but the studies and discoveries of this origi- 
nal genius were almost exclusively confined to the human frame, its 
diseases and cures. As the oracle of the sick, whose advice and at- 
tendance was requested from all quarters, he chiefly bestowed his atten- 
tion on those productions of Nature, which, by their medical virtues, 
were calculated to engross his principal concern. 
Thus Theoprastus was and remained the first learned botanist who 
flourished in Greece during its independence and republican freedom. 
The fall of the latter had for its mediate consequence the decline of 
the sciences. Several centuries elapsed without Theophrastus hav- 
ing a successor or rival of his fame. At last an Asiatic arrogated to 
* IIe ? i pur uv is-oft #?, seu Historlae Plantarum, lib. ix. cum commentar. J. C. Scai.igeri et 
J. Bodjei a Stapel, Amsterdam 1644- Of the xth book we have only fragments. 
(puTi'/pv uiTtuv sen de Causis Plantarum, lib. vi. His complete Greek 1st 
appeared with those of Aristotle at Venice , by A. Manuce, fiom i495 11 i49^> 
volumes in folio. The best Latin translation is that of Dan. Heinsxus, Leyden, 1613. 
himself 
* 
