A Sketch of The Development of Ancient Botany

ALONG with the study of the development of ancient literature may not inappropriately go that of the unfolding of other phases of ancient life and thought, such as constitutional, military, and aesthetic history, and that of the different branches of science. Perhaps the most satisfactory treatment of the sciences is not that by those classical students who know little or nothing of the sciences in question, nor yet by those scientific specialists who are unable at first hand to control the ancient sources, but by persons who may not claim foremost rank in either field but yet are competent to make an intelligent synthesis of both the ancient and the modern. It is with this presupposition that I shall attempt to sketch briefly some of the main features in the development of ancient botany.' The Greeks were interested in tracing the invention of the various arts and sciences and in naming their pioneers, and a list of such in Cramer's Anecdota Oxoniensia2 names Euclid for geometry, Demosthenes for rhetoric, and, among others, Apelles for botany. Who this Apelles was, however, or where and when he flourished I find no evidence; he is what modern botanists-in another sense-call a nomen nudum. Hebrew tradition (1 Kings 4.33) made King Solomon a founder of botanical and zoological nomenclature. The recognition of plant forms in archaeological remains-a large and fascinating topic, whether dealing with Cretan frescos, Attic vasepaintings, plant-symbols on ancient coins,3 or lotus and acanthus in the capitals of columns-I must here omit, and begin with purely literary materials.