178 A L P I T*J T. too confined for one of his extenfive views; he was defiroui of gainiiig a knowledge of exotic plants, and thought the belt way to luccxed in his enquiries, was, alter Galen's example. to vifit the countries where they grow. He loon had an op- portunity of gratifying his curiofity; for George Emo, or Hemi, being appointed conful for the republic of Venice in Egypt, chole him for hjs phyfici They left Venice the I2th of September, 1580; and, after a tedious and dangerous voyage, arrived at Grand Cairo the beginning of July the year following. Alpini continued three years in this country, where he omitted no opportunity of improving his knowledge in botany. He travelled along the banks ot the river Nile, and went as far as Alexandria, and other parts of Ejyp*, confulting every perfon who could give any account of what 3bij. p. 177. he was deiirous to know. None of Aipini's contemporaries underftocd properly the do<irine of the generation of plants ; but he fettled the matter beyond difpute : he allures us, " that Alpini, De " the female date-trees, or palms, do not conceive or bear piant.s JE-u f ru j r? unlefs fome one mixes the branches of the male and female together; or, as is generally done, inilead of mix- " ing the branches, to take the duff, found in the male (heath, " or the male flowers, and fprinkle them over the females." Upon Alpini's return to Venice, in 1586, Andrea Doria, prince of Melfi, appointed him his pbyiician -, and he diiiin- guifhed himfdf fo much in this capacity, that he wasefteem- ed the fir ft phyfician of his age. The republic of Venice began to be uneafy, that a fubjedl of theirs, of fo much merit as Alpini, {hould continue at Genoa, when he might be of very great fervice and honour to their tiate : they therefore recalled him in 1593, to fill the profefforlhip of botany at Padua, and he had a falary of two hundred florins, whxrh was afterwards raifed to feven hundred and fifty. He dif- 4 charged this office with great reputation ; hut his health be- came very precarious, having been much broke by the voy- ages he had made. According to the regifters of the univer- fity of Padua, he died the 5th of February, 1617, in the fbay-fourth year of his age, and was buried the day afrer, without any funeral pomp, in the church of St. Anthony [A], [A] Alpini left the fallowing works : " asud /Ejjinios frcquentioribus e'.u- 1. " De medicina A,gj p'iorinn, libri " c^'cunt.' " iv. in quibus multa cum de vario 2. " De j-larstis /Egypt! librr, It
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" tcr ; as, cucurbitulas, ac ii. . i < u> nes " n.ateriam irre ( :!rrunt, erroits dcpre- "' noflris inuHtatas, deque inurtionibua " hentiunfur, quorum caufa hatltnus. " ec aliis chirorficis opc-j'r.'i-,:(' ;, " mt:lta riifiliranienta ad ufiim mcdi.
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