A SKETCH OF PLANTS

AN INSERTION.

THE SACRED MINISTERS OF APOLLO,

original: "Sacros Mystas Apollineos" — a poetic reference to physicians and scholars of medicine, as Apollo was the god of healing.

STUDENT OF BOTANY,

PREFACE.

Three great lights of literature have composed and published histories arranged into forty books: first, in the time of Augustus, Diodorus Siculus wrote a Universal History; thereafter Polybius wrote a Roman History; and recently, the prince of botanists, Jean Bauhin, wrote a History of Plants. And if that first author dared to entitle his history his "Library," then by a much greater right, in the view of fair judges, we shall call this the "Library of Herbalists." For in this work, whatever the Ancient Greeks, Arabs, and Latins, as well as the writers of the more recent century, have produced concerning plants, is found collected in a clear and elegant order. One thing, however, was criticized in it: THE BULK OF THE VOLUMES, which was the cause of many inconveniences and various difficulties.

Desiring a compendium for the sake of many, we have contracted those works into One, and that one not so very large. But it is a volume in which you will find missing hardly anything of those matters treated at length in the others. For here are contained the images of every kind of plant, their sketches, birthplaces, seasons, qualities, and uses, and finally the opinions and errors of the Ancients and Moderns concerning them. Here, whatever the gardens, meadows, and fields produce, hide, and nourish; whatever the mountains, woods, and caves; whatever the snowy peaks, precipices, rugged places, stony ground, bare rocks, and the turf of hills; whatever the gravelly banks, shells, and quays; whatever the watered lands, streams, shores, and the Sea itself; and finally, whatever the ruined walls, rubble, waste heaps, thickets, and neglected places: all is depicted, explained, and weighed. Here the riches of this and the other world are uncovered. Here, with prepared feasts scattered everywhere, the "Table of the Sun" is spread. A reference to a legendary bountiful table mentioned by Herodotus.

However, one should by no means look here for a "Sybaritic" style of speech luxurious or over-refined composed of words chosen for beauty; by no means should one seek Attic wit. We proceed by crawling in the manner of the "Thong-foots" original: "Imantopodum" — a reference to a mythical tribe who crawled rather than walked; here meaning a slow, humble, and methodical pace, we pursue facts and strive for brevity. Let others delight in "little fruit from much chaff" original: "ἐκ πολλῶν ἀχύρων ὀλίγος καρπός"; we offer "much in little" original: "ἐν ὀλίγοις πολλά". But, lest we seem too prolific in the preliminaries of a condensed writing, the poem of a grave man and highly learned Physician—who is rightly numbered among the primary Sons of Wisdom—which is to be subjoined immediately, will supply the place of all other things to be added.

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An Epic EXHORTATORY AND

Laudatory Poem.

Below the title is a poem printed in two columns separated by a thin vertical line. The first line begins with an ornamental drop cap 'I'.