The history of BOTANY. 
/ 
in the formation of the Plant. He has done this very happily : fparing of 
words, but full of fenfe and matter. 
His commentators have indeed been, like modern Critics, rafli and 
rude : they have depreciated their author, becaufe they did not underfcand 
him : for there required to this a knowledge of the fubjedt as well as of 
the language. Of this it will be juft, at the clofe of the account, to give 
tome inflances. Having confidered the Particularities and Affcdtions ot 
Vegetables in thefe and many other circumftances ; deducing their qua- 
lities from their ftrudure, according to his firft philofophy, the author pro- 
ceeds to their origin, generation, and production j in wild nature, or by 
the arts of culture. In this article we muft be aftoniflied as we read, 
to find how much he knew : and we fhould blufla at the fmail improve- 
ments of more than two thoufand years. 
The propagation of Trees from Seed, from Suckers, and from Cut- 
tings, even the moft tender, was familiar to irim: nay the very reveries of 
Ratifbon Agricola, had their foundation here : for Theophrastus names 
the method of producing Trees from pieces cut from the roots, trunk, 
and branches. What appeared miraculous when the mad German pro- 
pofed it to the w'orld, might have been found earlier in this fober Greek; 
and Rome tried, and verified it in the Olive. So much we fpeak of the 
antique knowledge ; and fo very little we examine what it was. Grafting 
and Inoculation, with all the leflcr arts of Tranfplantation, and the mecha- 
nick procejfes of Culture, were known to Theophrastus. To take his 
fenfe entire, w^e mufi: read his fevcral works on the fame fuhjedt together ; 
and we mufi; read them in his own words, not in the firange tranllations, 
even of his befi; interpreters: thus we fhall do him jufiice ; and we ihall 
then learn, that the new things are old ; and learned labour is a thoufand 
times employed, to revive a negledtcd pradlice, for once that it attempts 
to laife a new one. 
From this general dodrine of Culture, Theophrastus defeends to the 
particulars : he fpeaks with great and approved truth of Tillage and Ma- 
nures ; and among his various infiances of the effects of Culture, he gives 
that famous one, of making the Bitter Almond fweet. He treats largc- 
Iv of the Palm ; and we find he knew very well its different fex : and in 
the raifmg of the P'ig, he explains, juftly and truly, the firange pradice 
of Capiification, He deferibes the Infeds of the male Wild Fig, and tells 
us how they eat their w-ay into the fruit of the other. The writers up- 
on Plants of a late time, when they perceived the difference cf fex in va- 
rious Herbs of the fame fpecies, by a firange abfurdity, gave the name 
