To the %eader< 
in the fame page at the beginning of a table which is of thevertues, are thefe words^ /» 
prtrno libro pint herbs defcripts,quas Apolienfts Plato dc fa ip fit, cr c. and thus alfoheis named 
in the title of the Epiftle or Proeme ; but at the end of the vvorkeis explicit liber pUtonis 
dc herbis mafiultni<,iicc. W ith this in al 1 things agrees that of M\ Goodyer, as he hath affir. 
med to me. Befides thefe, I found one with M‘. lehn T radefifoit, which was written in a 
more ignorant and barbarous time,as one may coniecture by the title, which is thus at the 
very beginning . In nomine dotnini mcipit Herborditim Apulei Platonic quod acccpit a Scolapio,& 
Chirone Centauro magijlro. Then followesfas alfo in the former, and in theprinted bookes) 
the trail aferibed to Antonins Mufa,de herba Betonica : after that are thefe words, Liber 
Medians. PUtonis herb. man explicit. By this it feemes the Author of this worke either was 
named, orelfecalled lumfelfe Plato, a thing not without example in thefetimes. This 
worke was firft printed at Bafill , 1 5 2 8. amongft fome other workes of Phy (icke,and one 
Albania T or trim let it forth by the helpe of many Manufcripts,of whofe imperfections he 
much complaines,and I thinke not without caufe rafter this , Gabriel Humelbergm of Ra- 
uenfpurgein Germany let it forth with a Comment vpon it, whoalfo complaines o the 
imperfections ofhis copies, and thinkes the worke not perfect : indeed both the editions 
are faultie in many places : and by the help of thefe Manufcripts I haue feen they might 
be mended :'if any thought it worth their labour) in fome things, as I obferued in curfori- 
ly looking oner them. One thing I much maruell at, which is, that I finde not this Au- 
thor mentioned in any Writerofthe middle times, as Platcarms ,Bartholornsus e-Anglus, 
See. Now I conie&urc this worke was originally written in Greeke, for thefe reaions; 
firft,becaufe it hath the Greeke names in Inch plenty, and many of them proper, fignifi- 
cant.and 111 the firft place : Secondly fame are onely named in Greeke, as HterobHlbon,Ar- 
tcmifa Leftophyllos, and Artemifta tagames,Batrachion,Gryas (which I iudge rather Greeke 
chan Larine) &c. Befides in both the written bookesin very many places amongft the 
names I finde this word ovAwjbutdiuerfly written; for I conieCture the Greeke names 
were written in the Greeke character, and fat* r amongft them,- and thenalfo when the 
left of the worke was tranllated, which afterwards made the tranferibers whp vnderftood 
it not to write it varioufly,for in the one bookeit is alwaies written Amoeos, and in theo- 
ther Omoees , and fomrimes Orneos, as in the Chapter of Brittanies, the one hath it tbus,M- 
men herb* ijlius Brttanict, Amoeos dicunt earn Damafinntm,Stc. The other thus : Nomen her- 
bs Brittanies, Omeos Damafimus,&tc.&i in the chap of Althsa the one hath it thav.Nomen hu- 
ms herbs: eAltes ^Amoeos vocant hanc herbam Molochc,&cc. The Other Nomen herbs Ibijcus 0- 
meeos Moloce, See. If it be certaine which Philip Fen. arms affirmes in his Lexicon Geogra- 
phicum, that the citie Apol.ey is Conftantinople, then haue I found eMpoltenfis vrbu, of 
which I can finde no mention in any antient or moderne Geographer be (ides; and then it 
is more than probable that this was written in Greeke, and it may be thought differently 
tranflated,which occafions fitch diuerfit ie in the copies, as you fhall finde in fome places . 
Now I conieCture this worke was written about fome 6 00. yearesagoe. 
From thefe Antients haue fprung all,orthegrcateft part of the knowledge, that the 
middle or later times haue had of Plants ; and all the controuerfies that of late haue fo 
fluffed the bookcs offuch as haue writ of this fubieCt,had their beginning by reafon that 
the carelefnefle of the middle times were fuch, that they knew little but what they tran- 
feribed outof thele Antients,neuercndeuouring to acquire any perfect knowledge of the 
things themfelues : fo that when as learning (after a long Winter) began to fpringvjaa- 
gaine,men began to be fomwhat more curious, and by the notes and deferiptions in thefe 
antient Authors they haue laboured toreftorethis loft knowledge; making inquirie, firft 
whether it were knowne by TbcopbraJhts.Diefcorides, or any of rhe Antients, then by what 
name. But to returne to my Authors. 
About An. Dorn, t too. ora little after, liued the Arabians Auices, Atterrhoes ,Mefve ,Itha- ne Araiitnu 
Jts and Sernpio ^mod of thefe writ but briefely of this fubieCt^neither haue we their works 
an the Arabicke wherein they were written, but barbaroufly tranllated into Latine, and 
moll par t of thefe workes were by them taken out of the Greekes, efpecially Diofcorides 
and Galen-, yet foas they added fomewhat oftheirown,and otherwhilcs confounded other 
things with thofe mentioned by the Greekes, becauie they did not well know the things 
whereof they writ. Amc&»,Auerrhoes, apd Rhafis alphabetically and briefly(foilowing the 
method of Galen) giuethenames,remperature,andvertues, of thechiefeft fimple niedi-^ s ,-„,. 
cines. But Serapio after a particular traCt ofthc temperature and qualities of fimple medi»C“"ri/»« 0 
cines in general!, comes to treat of them in particular, and therein followes chiefely Di- Kh ‘^'e 
ofcorides, Galen, and Paulas, and diners Arabians that went before him. This is thechiefe 
worke in this kinde of the Arabians, which haue come to vs ; he himfelfe cells vs his me- 
thod e 
