Excerpt from The Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil In the sixteenth century several botanists interested themselves in the plants of the ancient Romans. Among them were two able Italians, Pietro Andrea Mathioli (1500-1577), whose name has been given to the cruciferous genus of stock, and Andrea Cesalpini (1519-1603), from whom is named the leguminous genus of Caesalpinia. Over Dodoens or Dodonaeus they had the advantage of being natives and inhabitants of Italy. Their works were studied by John Martyn, Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, who in 1741 published an edition of the Georgics with an English translation. His works deal with the substance rather than with the language of Virgil's poem. He had been for some years in correspondence with Linné, from whom he probably received help. Although Linné was occasionally in error, a list of the scientific names will show how skilfully he had studied the ancient Roman writings. Martyn made two or three bad blunders, but his book is a monument of clear observation and sound common sense. It was followed in 1749 by an edition of the Eclogues. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.