CHAP. 5.—THE FIRST GREEK AUTHORS WHO WROTE UPON PLANTS.
Hence it is that other writers have confined themselves to
a verbal description of the plants, indeed some of them have
not so much as described them even, but have contented themselves for the most part with a bare recital of their names,
considering it sufficient if they pointed out their virtues and
properties to such as might Feel inclined to make further enquiries into the subject. Nor is this a kind of knowledge
by any means difficult to obtain; at all events, so far as regards myself, with the exception of a very few, it has been
my good fortune to examine them all, aided by the scientific
researches of Antonius Castor,
1 who in our time enjoyed the
highest reputation for an intimate acquaintance with this
branch of knowledge. I had the opportunity of visiting his
garden, in which, though he had passed his hundredth year, he
cultivated vast numbers of plants with the greatest care.
Though he had reached this great age, he had never experienced
any bodily ailment, and neither his memory nor his natural
vigour had been the least impaired by the lapse of time.
There was nothing more highly admired than an intimate
knowledge of plants, in ancient times. It is long since the
means were discovered of calculating before-hand, not only
the day or the night, but the very hour even at which an
eclipse of the sun or moon is to take place; and yet the greater
part of the lower classes still remain firmly persuaded that
these phenomena are brought about by compulsion, through the
agency of herbs and enchantments, and that the knowledge of
this art is confined almost exclusively to females. What
country, in fact, is not filled with the fabulous stories about
Medea of Colchis and other sorceresses, the Italian Circe in
particular, who has been elevated to the rank of a divinity
even? It is with reference to her, I am of opinion, that
Æschylus,
2 one of the most ancient of the poets, asserts that
Italy is covered with plants endowed with potent effects, and
that many writers say the same of Circeii,
3 the place of her
abode. Another great proof too that such is the case, is the
fact, that the nation of the Marsi,
4 descendants of a son of
Circe, are well known still to possess the art of taming serpents.
Homer, that great parent of the learning and traditions of
antiquity, while extolling the fame of Circe in many other
respects, assigns to Egypt the glory of having first discovered
the properties of plants, and that; too at a time when the
portion of that country which is now watered by the river
Nilus was not in existence, having been formed at a more recent
period by the alluvion
5 of that river. At all events, he states
6
that numerous Egyptian plants were sent to the Helena of his
story, by the wife of the king of that country, together with
the celebrated nepenthes,
7 which ensured oblivion of all
sorrows and forgetfulness of the past, a potion which Helena
was to administer to all mortals. The first person, however,
of whom the remembrance has come down to us, as having
treated with any degree of exactness on the subject of plants,
is Orpheus; and next to him Musæus and Hesiod, of whose
admiration of the plant called polium we have already made
some mention on previous occasions.
8 Orpheus and Hesiod
too we find speaking in high terms of the efficacy of fumigations. Homer also speaks of several other plants by name, of
which we shall have occasion to make further mention in their
appropriate places.
In later times again, Pythagoras, that celebrated philosopher,
was the first to write a treatise on the properties of plants, a
work in which he attributes the origin and discovery of them
to Apollo, Æsculapius, and the immortal gods in general.
Democritus too, composed a similar work. Both of these philosophers had visited the magicians of Persia, Arabia, Æthiopia,
and Egypt, and so astounded were the ancients at their recitals,
as to learn to make assertions which transcend all belief.
Xanthus, the author of some historical works, tells us, in the
first of them, that a young dragon
9 was restored to life by its
parent through the agency of a plant to which he gives the
name of "ballis," and that one Tylon, who had been killed by
a dragon, was restored to life and health by similar means.
Juba too assures us that in Arabia a man was resuscitated by
the agency of a certain plant. Democritus has asserted—and
Theophrastus believes it—that there is a certain herb in
existence, which, upon being carried thither by a bird, the name
of which we have already
10 given, has the effect, by the contact
solely, of instantaneously drawing a wedge from a tree, when
driven home by the shepherds into the wood.
These marvels, incredible as they are, excite our admiration
nevertheless, and extort from us the admission that, making
all due allowance, there is much in them that is based on
truth. Hence it is too that I find it the opinion of most
writers, that there is nothing which cannot be effected by the
agency of plants, but that the properties of by far the greater
part of them remain as yet unknown. In the number of
these was Herophilus, a celebrated physician, a saying of whose
is reported, to the effect that some plants may possibly exercise
a beneficial influence, if only trodden under foot. Be this as
it may, it has been remarked more than once, that wounds and
maladies are sometimes inflamed
11 upon the sudden approach of
persons who have been journeying on foot.