Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c22.5

c22.5

Studies in plant life from Theophrastus (370–286 B.C.), the "father of botany," down to the revival of learning in the sixteenth century were mere observations in agriculture, horticulture, forestry, pharmacy, etc.²⁰ The investigations regarding animals also did not go beyond the stage of "bionomics," *i.e.*, the lore of the farmer, gardener, sportsman, and field-naturalist, including thremmatology or the science of breeding.⁴⁵