Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning/Chapter 21
CHAP. XXI.
Of Ancient and Modern Histories
of Plants.
The Natural History of Plants comes next; which, for Variety and Use, is one of the noblest and pleasantest Parts of Knowledge. Its Mechanical and Medicinal Advantages were early known. Fruits afforded the first Sustenance to Mankind; and the old Heathens esteemed those worthy of Consecration, who taught them to till their Grounds, gather their Seed, and grind their Corn; with Trees they built themselves Houses, afterwards they found that the Bark of some Plants would serve for Cloaths, and others afforded Medicines against Wounds and Diseases. There is no doubt therefore, but this Part of Knowledge was sufficiently cultivated for the Uses of humane Life; especially when the World becoming Populous, had communicated their Notions together, and Conversation had introduced the Arts of Luxury and Plenty amongst Mankind. But whether the Natural History of Plants was so exactly known formerly as it is at present, is the Question.
The ancientest Writers of Plants now extant, are Theophrastus, Pliny and Dioscorides; indeed the only ones who say any thing considerable to the present Purpose. Theophrastus describes nothing; gives abundance of Observations of several Plants, and the like; but what he says is too general for our Purpose. Pliny and Dioscorides who lived long after him do give Descriptions indeed of a great many Plants, but short, imperfect and without Method; they will tell you for Instance, that a Plant is hairy, has broad Leaves, that its Stalks are knotty, hollow or square; that its Branches creep upon the Ground, are erect, and so forth; in short, if there is any thing remarkable in the Colour or Shape of the Stalk, Root, Seed, Flower or Fruit, which strikes the Eye at first Sight, it may perhaps be taken Notice of, but then every thing is confused, and seldom above one or two Plants of a sort are mentioned; though perhaps later Botanists have observed some Scores plainly reducible to the same general Head. Pliny ranges many of the Plants, which he describes in an Order (i) N. H. l. 12. cap. 13. and l. 27. throughout.(i) something Alphabetical, others (k) he digests according to their Virtues, others he (l) puts together, because they were discovered by great Persons, and called by their Discoverers Names; all which Methods, (k) The 12th. Book is chiefly of Trees which bear odoriferous Gums, and so on of all the rest.how much soever they may assist the Memory in remembring hard Names, or in retaining the Materia Medica in one View in a Man's Head, signifie nothing to the Understanding the Characteristical Differences of the several Plants; by which alone, and not by accidental Agreements in Virtue, Smell, Colour, Tast, Place of Growth, (l) N. H. l. 25. cap. 6, 7. & alibi passim.Time of sprouting, or any mechanical Use to which they may be made serviceable, Men may become exact Botanists: Without such a Method, to which the Ancients were altogether Strangers, the Knowledge of Plants is a confused thing depending wholly upon an uncommon Strength of Memory and Imagination, and even with the Help of the best Books scarce attainable without a Master.
Conradus Gesner, to whose Labours the World has been unspeakably beholden in almost all Parts of Natural History, was the first Man (that I know of) who hinted at the true Way to distinguish Plants, and reduce them to fixed and certain Heads. In a Letter to Theodorus Zuingerus (m),(m) Epist. Medicinal. p. 113. a. he says, that Plants are to be ranged according to the Shape of their Flowers, Fruits and Seeds; having observed that Cultivation, or any accidental Difference of Soil, never alters the Shape of these more Essential Parts; but that every Plant has something there peculiar, by which it may be distinguished, not only from others of a remoter Genus, but also from those of the same Family.
About the same Time Andreas Cæsalpinus, and Fabius Columna, the first especially, reduced that into an Art, which Gesner had hinted at before; yet what they writ lay neglected, though Clusius, Caspar Bauhinus, Parkinson, Gerard and Johnson, and John Bauhinus had taken very laudable Pains in describing, not only the more general Sorts taken notice of by the Ancients, but also in observing their several Sub-divisions with great Niceness and Skill. John Bauhinus also had described every particular Plant then known, in his General History of Plants, with great Accuracy; and compared whatsoever had been said before, and adjusted old Names to those Plants which Modern Herbarists had gathered, with so much Care, that the Philological Part of Botany seems by him to have, in a manner, received its utmost Perfection.
The great Work already begun by Cæsalpinus and Columna, was still imperfect; which, though, perhaps, not the most laborious, was yet the most necessary to a Man that would consider those Things Philosophically, and comprehend the whole Vegetable Kingdom, as the Chymists call it, under one View. This was, to digest every Species of Plants under such and such Families and Tribes; that so, by the help of a general Method, taken only from the Plants themselves, and not from any accidental Respects, under which they may be considered, once thoroughly understood, a Learner might not be at a Loss upon the Sight of every new Plant that he meets with, but might discern its General Head at first View; and then, by running over the Tables thereunto belonging, might, at last, either come to the particular Species which he sought for, or, which would do as well, find that the Plant before him was hitherto undescribed, and that by it there would be a new accession made to the old Stock. Mr. Ray drew a rough Draught of this Matter, in the Tables of Plants inserted into Bishop Wilkins's Book, of a Real Character, and Philosophical Language; and was soon followed by Dr. Morison, in his Hortus Regius Blesensis; who, pursuant to his own Method, begun a General History of Plants; which he not living to finish, Mr. Ray undertook the whole Work anew, and very happily compleated it.
This great Performance of his, which will be a standing Monument of Modern Industry and Exactness, deserves to be more particularly described. First, therefore, He gives an Anatomical Account, from Malpighius and Grew, of Plants in general: And because the Ancients had said nothing upon that Subject, of which, for want of Microscopes, they could only have a very obscure Notion, all that he says upon that Head is Modern. Afterwards, when he comes to particular Plants, he draws up Tables, to which he reduces the whole Vegetable Kingdom, except a very few irregular Plants, which stand by themselves. These Tables are taken from the Shape of the Flowers, Seeds, Seed-vessels, Stalks and Leaves; from the Number or Order of these when determined, and Irregularity when undetermined; from the Want, or having of particular Juices, Lympha's, Milks, Oils, Rosins, or the like: In short, from Differences, or Agreements, wholly arising from the Plants themselves. His Descriptions are exacter than John Bauhine's; and his are much better than those of the Generality of Botanists that were before him; and there are scarce any of theirs, which are not preferable to those of Pliny, and Dioscorides. He avoids Confusion of Synonymas, which had made former Authors tedious; and by inserting what was already extant in the Malabar-Garden, Boym's Flora Sinensis, Marcgravius's Natural History of Brasil, Hernandez's Account of the Plants of Mexico, Cornutus's History of the Plants of Canada, and other Indian Accounts of Natural Rareties, into his General History, has shewed, that the Moderns have been as careful to compleat the Natural History of remoter Countries, as to understand the Productions of their own.
It may be wonder'd at, perhaps, why I should mention this, since the Ancients were not to be blamed for being ignorant of Things which they had no Opportunities of knowing. But, besides that it proves the Extent of Modern Knowledge in Natural History, which may be considered, without any Regard to the Opportunities of acquiring it, it proves also, against Sir William Temple, that the Moderns have done what they could in every Point, to make the greatest Use they were able of every Addition to their former Knowledge, which might accrue to them by the Discovery of the Usefulness of the Load-Stone in Navigation. His Words are these; (n)(n) Pag. 49. The vast Continents of China, the East and West-Indies, the long Extent and Coasts of Africa, have been hereby introduced into our Acquaintance, and our Maps; and great Increases of Wealth and Luxury, but none of Knowledge brought among us, further than the Extent and Situation of Country, the Customs and Manners of so many Original Nations.——— I do not doubt but many great and more noble Uses would have been made of such Conquests, or Discoveries, if they had fallen to the Share of the Greeks and Romans, in those Ages, when Knowledge and Fame were in as great Request as endless Gains and Wealth are among us now: And how much greater Discoveries might have been made by such Spirits as theirs, is hard to guess. Sir William Temple here owns, that the Political Uses which can be made by such Discoveries, are inconsiderable; though, at the same Time, he confesses, that even those have not been neglected, since he acknowledges that Men have brought from those Barbarous Nations their Customs and Manners; which is the only Political Use that I know of that is to be learnt by Travel. What other Advantages might have been made, is hard to tell, unless such as may conduce to the Compleating of Natural History; the Benefits whereof are agreed upon of all Hands to be very great. The Subject now before me is Botanics, which has been so far from being neglected, that all imaginable Care has been taken to compleat it. Monsieur Van Rheed, the noble Collector of the Plants that are so magnificently printed in the Eleven Volumes of the Hortus Malabaricus, has added more to the Number of those formerly known, than are to be found in all the Writings of the Ancients. When (o)(o) Mentzel Index Plantar. Multiling. in Præfatione. Prince Maurice of Nassaw, who gave Sir William Temple the wonderful Account of the Parrot which he mentions in his Memoirs, was in Brasil, he ordered Pictures and Descriptions to be taken of all the Beasts, Birds, Fishes and Plants that could be found in that Country: They are now in the Elector of Brandenburgh's Library, fit for the Press. Every Day new Additions are made to this Part of Natural History. Breynius's, Plukenet's, and Herman's Collections, are Modern to those of Clusius, Rauwolfius, and Prosper Alpinus; as theirs are to those of Pliny, and Dioscorides. One is also to consider, that this is a much more laborious Business, than the Knowledge of Fowls, Fishes, and Quadrupeds. The Confusion in which the Ancients left Botanical Knowledge, shews how little they understood it. And, which is still more remarkable, it is not only in Indian or Chinese Rareties, that our Botanical Knowledge excels theirs; but in the Productions of Countries, equally accessible to them, as to us. There are no new Species in Europe or Asia, which the Ancient Herbarists could not have discovered; no new Soils to produce them without Seed, in case such a Thing were ever naturally possible. Let but a Man compare Mr. Ray's Catalogue of English Plants, and those other numerous Catalogues of the Plants of other Countries, drawn up by other Modern Botanists, with the Writings of Pliny and Dioscorides; let him run over Ray's General History, or, if that be not at hand, Gerard's, Parkinson's, or John Bouhine's Herbals, or Gaspar Bauhine's Pinax; and deduct every Plant, not growing wild, within the Limits of the Roman Empire, and he will see enough to convince him, that not only this Part of Knowledge is incomparably more exact and large than it was formerly; but also, by comparing the Writings of the first Restorers of the Knowledge of Simples, Matthiolus, Dodonæus, Fuchsius, Turner, and the rest, with the Writings of Ray and Morison, that it has been always growing, and will do so still, till the Subject is exhausted.
It is well known that Travelling in Mahometan Countries is very dangerous; that it is what no Man that makes Learning his Aim in Journeying, would willingly undertake, if he were not very ardently possessed with the Love of it. So that whatsoever Perils the Ancient Sages endured in their Journeys into Egypt for Knowledge, are equalled at least, if not out-done, by our Modern Sages; to use that Word, in Sir William Temple's Sence, for one that goes far and near to seek for Knowledge. Nay, I may safely add, that a few inquisitive and learned Travellers, such as Rauwolfius, Prosper Alpinus, Bellonius, Guillandinus, and Sir George Wheeler, have acquainted the learned Men of these Parts of the World with the Natural History of the Countries of the Levant, not only better than they could have known it by reading the Books of the Ancients; but, in many Particulars, better than the Ancients themselves, Natives of those very Countries, knew it, if the extant Books can enable us to give a competent Judgment in this Matter. And if Travelling far for Knowledge be sufficient to recommend the Ancients to our Imitation, I may observe, that Mr. Edmond Halley, who went to St. Helena, an Island situate in the 16th Degree of Southern Latitude, to take an Account of the Fixed Stars in the Southern Hemisphere, which are never visible to us who live in the Northern; and to Dantzick, to conferr about Astronomical Matters, with the great Hevelius, has taken much larger Journeys than any of the Ancients ever did in the sole Pursuit of knowledge. So much for the Natural History of Bodies not endued with Sensitive Life.