The history of BOTANY. 
9 
principally the confirming the doflrlnes long ago advanced bv this great 
man. He eftablifhes Oil as the great Vegetable Poifon ; and gives this 
curious Inftance, that where Roots are cut, if they be rubbed with Oil, 
they fhoot no Fibres. 
The Philofophy of Vegetable Bo.lies having been confidered under thefe 
diftindt articles, and the propofitions relating to each, illuflrated by plain, 
and often very lingular fads, the author proceeds to treat of the mere con - 
fiderable and ufeful Plants diftindively : obferving, that when the general 
laws of Vegetation are known, it will be eafier to underftand the effeds 
which they produce in the particular fubjeds. Under thefe heads he has 
confidered principally the objeds of utility : he has treated largely and ju- 
dicioufly of the Efculent Herbs, -particularly of the Corn and Pulfe kinds j 
and the feveral methods of railing thefe, have led him to confider the Gar- 
den and Field Culture. We have accordingly in the fucceeding chapters, 
the true Principles of Hulbandry and Gardening. He lays down alfo the 
bed Seafons for Felling Trees, and the Management of Timber; the 
Manner of preferving Gums, and other Medicinal Juices ; and gives the 
original Way of Making Pitch and Refin : concluding his great work w'ith 
a rational Account of Vegetable Medicines ; and exprefiing a decent con- 
tempt for the fables and follies of an earlier time, relating to their growth, 
and to the manner of collecting them : every where conforming himfclf to 
nature. 
This is a Ibort view of what Theophrastus wrote concerning Plants. 
His work appears a valf and well confidered undertaking ; where the Phi- 
lofophy of Vegetable Nature is made the bafis of all fucceeding knowledge ; 
and is extended to whatever is ufeful in the parts of Plants, their Pro- 
dudts, and their Culture. Upon the whole, w'e find that femething was 
known concerning Plants before his time ; but that knowledge was rude 
and indigefied. Whatever former ages had difeovered, we fee colledled 
and arranged in his feveral additional chapters, and carefully difiinguifhed 
from his own. The firft has its ufe : but the great value is in the latter. 
Others had feen things, he examined them ; they had experienced, but he 
reafoned. We fee him fianding alone, in the vafi: fpace of Antiquity, with 
nothing before him, that deferves the name of fcientific knowledge ; and 
very flow advances after him. What he had done, difeouraged for many 
ages, thofe who followed him ; and while himfelf felt fenfibly, and mo- 
deftly acknowledged, that his advances were full of imperfection, referring 
the more accurate knowledge of things to fucceeding times, and to repeat- 
ed obfervations, his fucceflhrs thought he had exhaufled the whole fub- 
VoL. I. C jed: 
