On the Names of Plants

...how their fibers differed according to the straight path, or how they were woven. Furthermore, the various powers and species of stones and herbs, both common and rare, were investigated and discovered by him in every way. For which reason, he gave much business to the professors of individual subjects, often meeting them and inquiring individually as accurately as possible. Indeed, he made much of the history of plants: and even greatly of animals, partly learning and exploring for himself with his own eyes as much as he could, partly inquiring from others as diligently as possible, and reading through all the writings of the ancients concerning them, etc. Suidas.

B Bassus Tylaeus, see under Sextius Niger.
1 Julius Bassus (a Roman man, or at least a Latin), wrote in Greek on medicine; he is cited by Pliny in books 24 and 26.

2 Bion of Soli is cited by Pliny both elsewhere and in books 14, 15, 17, and 10, in which he teaches about vines, trees, and agriculture, and in book 28. Caecilius Bion, who wrote On Powers, is among the foreign authors; but Caecilius, simply called the physician, is in book 29 among the Latin authors.

C Caecilius, read Bion.

3 Callimachus and Mnestheus, physicians among the Greeks, wrote specifically on garlands, [and] which ones might harm the head, Pliny 21.3.
The commentator on Nicander’s Theriaca cites Callimachus writing on the trefoil.

4 Castritius, Cesennius, and Firmus wrote Cepurica, that is, on matters of the garden, Pliny book 19, among the Latin authors.
Cesennius is mentioned under Castritius.

5 Chaereas of Athens wrote something on plants, being most diligent regarding thistles and thorns, according to the testimony of Pliny book 20, chapter 23. He is also cited by the same in books 8, 12, 14, 10, 17, and 18.

We find the volumes of Chrysippus filled with the mention of herbs, says Pliny. The same author in book 20 says: Chrysippus the physician dedicated a volume specifically to the Cabbage, arranged according to the individual members of the human body.

Eleven most learned books of Claudius Galen on simple medicines are extant, for which I confess we owe him very much; yet I wonder that such a learned and excellent man, abounding in wealth and every opportunity for trying new things, nevertheless not only described no new plants, nor interpreted the names of the ancients by the names of his own age or of other languages, but also passed over many things handed down by Dioscorides and others. This he did perhaps because he thought more time should be spent in perfecting the art itself, and that materia medica was supplied to us in sufficient abundance; and he thought there was more need for us to know more deeply those things which are at hand and common, according to the primary and secondary qualities of each, and furthermore through experience, than to be occupied with searching without end for many, various, and uncertain new things.