( 220 ) 
fMofcorides, and a few other writers whofe 
works are loft. 
Pliny fays, that Cato was the firft Roman 
who wrote of Plants, and that, after him, 
one Pompeius Len<zus\ a freedman of Potn- 
py, tranflated into Latin, Notes and Obfer- 
vations on Simples, written by Methridates, 
from papers taken by Pompy when he de- 
feated that King. He alfo tells us that 
Evax, an Arabian King, wrote a book on 
the virtues of plants, a copy of which he 
fent, as a prefent, to the Emperor Nero> 
that Cratevas, and others, publifhed colour- 
ed drawings of plants ; and that Antonius, 
Caftor, a Roman Phyfician, had a Bonta-? 
nical Garden, in which he (Pliny) had feen 
moft of the herbs he defcribes. This Caftor 
was then a hundred years old. Is it not a 
little extraordinary, that the name of Pom- 
py's freedman., who tranflated the papers of 
Methridates, fhould fo nearly refemble that 
of Linnaus, the great author of our prefent 
fyftem of Botany? 
If you have any inclination to know the 
botanical authors from Pliny down to our 
own Ray, you will find a fhort account of 
each, and of their writings, in Tournefort's 
Jfagoge 
