s and beetles, and tells, among other things,
of bats that make fires in caves to keep themselves warm. Book Twelve is
on trees, their varieties, height, age, growth, qualities and
distribution. Book Thirteen treats of fruits, juices, gums, wax, saps
and perfumes. Book Fourteen is on grapes and the making of wine, with a
description of the process and the various kinds of wine, their effects
on the human system, with a goodly temperance lesson backed up by
incidents and examples.

Book Fifteen treats of pomegranates, apples, plums, peaches, figs and
various other luscious fruits, and shows much intimate and valuable
knowledge. And so the list runs down through, treating at great length
of bees, fishes, woods, iron, lead, copper, gold, marble, fluids, gases,
rivers, swamps, seas, and a thousand and one things that were familiar
to this marvelous man. But of all subjects, Pliny shows a much greater
love for botany than for anything else. Plants, flowers, vines, trees
and mosses interest him always, and he breaks off other subjects to tell
of some flower that he has just discovered.

Pliny had command of the Roman fleet that was anchored in the bay off
Pompeii, when that city was destroyed in the year Seventy-nine.
Bulwer-Lytton tells the story, with probably a close regard for the
facts. The sailors, obeying Pliny's orders, did their utmost to save
human life, and rescued hundreds. Pliny himself made various trips in a
small boat from the ship to the beach. He was safely on board the
flag-ship, and orders had been given to weigh anchor, when the commander
decided to make one more visit to the perishing city to see if he could
not rescue a few more, and also to get a closer view of Nature in a
tantrum.

He rowed away into the fog. The sailors waited for their beloved
commander, but waited in vain. He had ventured too close to the flowing
lava, and was suffocated by the fumes, a victim to his love for humanity
and his desire for knowledge. So died Pliny the Elder, aged but
fifty-six years.

* * * * *

All children are zoologists, but a botanist appears upon the earth only
at rare intervals.

A Botanist is born--not made. From the time of Pliny, botany performed
the Rip Van Winkle act until John Ray, the son of a blacksmith, appeared
upon the scene in England. In the meantime, Leonardo had classified the
rocks, recorded the birds, counted the animals and written a book of
three thousand