Note 85 — HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. (continued 2)

Dr. Blair thinks that the ancients were led in many instances by the comparison of habit, to ascribe similar virtues to plants; there does not however appear to be a trace of what may be called System, in the writings of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, or Pliny. Cæsalpinus was the father of botanical system, and he was probably the first who suggested the idea that the virtues of plants were discoverable by their structure and alliance to each other. In his preface to his work, “De Plantis,” he says ‘Quæ enim generis societate junguntur, plerumque et similes possident facultates.’ This idea was pursued by Petiver, an apothecary in the city of London, a name well known in the annals of Botany; there is a paper by him on this subject, in the 21st volume of the Philosophical Transactions, entitled, “Some attempts to prove that herbs of the same make and class, for the generality, have the like Vertue, and Tendency to work the same Effects.” Dr. Murray has adopted an arrangement founded upon natural character in his celebrated work entitled, “Apparatus Medicaminum”.