Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/46

30 it treats of the nomenclature of plants; but he meets the difficulties which this peculiarity presents, difficulties which Prof. Meyer has already insisted on, with a general plea of rejection. He thinks that it is Ibn Wahshíya who has substituted the names in use in his own time for Nabathæan names, and that he has added to them their various synonymes. That is certainly by no means impossible. It must be remembered, however, that Ibn Wahshíya is neither a botanist nor an agronomist by profession. He is a translator, proud of the ancient literary glory of his race, and who translates alike every Nabathæan work which comes to hand. What would be natural in an agronomist, pre-occupied with the practical utility of his book, cannot be attributed to him. He never appears to endeavour to accommodate his translation to the exigency of his age, as is the usual case in an ordinary work. The Greek names given by Ibn Wahshíya, moreover, are not the vulgar, but