After this event the teacher pursued his course of public teaching and private research without any molestation for years. His school increased in reputation, and the most distinguished scholars of the day were members of it. Demetrius Phalereus, ruler of the State, was one of the students in his youth, and he protected Theophrastus and patronized him in every way. Botany was not the strongest subject of this great man, and probably what he knew about it was largely derived from the teaching of Aristoteles; but evidently his work on plants was one of the earliest that was written with anything like scientific precision. Nevertheless, Theophrastus added much original matter, for he had a botanic garden, and he collected plants during his travels in Greece. His military friends kept him supplied with specimens of Asiatic, Egyptian, and Arabian plants, and with descriptions of their natures and peculiarities, some of which were true and others quite imaginary. What was true and what was not true was frequently a puzzle to this philosopher, as it is to modern naturalists. He wrote, “The drug sellers and root cutters tell us some things which may be true, but other things which are merely solemn quackery. Thus they direct us to gather some plants, standing from the wind and with our bodies anointed; some by night, some by day, some before the sun falls on them. So far there may be something in their rules; but others are too fantastical and far-fetched. It is, perhaps, not absurd to use a prayer in plucking a plant; but they go further than this. We are to draw a sword three times round the mandragora, and to cut it looking to the west; again, to dance round it, and to use obscene language, as those who sow cumin should utter blasphemies. Again, we are to draw a line round the black hellebore, standing to the east, and praying; and to avoid an eagle either on the right or on the left; for they say if an eagle be near, the cutter will die in a year.” This was the nonsense, out of which Theophrastus had to extricate the true wisdom of plants, and he tried to put aside fancies, legends, and the opinions of men, and to puzzle out the meaning of the similarities and differences of plants, by first of all learning and describing their construction, habits, methods of growth, and increase.