a. and sb. [ad. med.L. botanicus, a. Gr. βοτανικός, f. βοτάν-η plant: see -IC; perh. the immediate source is F. botanique, which occurs in Cotgrave, 1611.]
A. adj. Pertaining to the science or study of plants, to botany. (Now mostly superseded by BOTANICAL, exc. in names of institutions founded many years ago, as ‘The Royal Botanic Society,’ ‘The Botanic Gardens.’)
1656. Parkinson, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 84, note. Discovered in a botanic excursion by J. Tradescant.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 149. Our very Learned Botanic Professor.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 326. That Ancient Botanick Book mentioned by Galen.
1678. Phillips, Botanical or Botanic, belonging to Herbs or Plants.
1736. Thomson, Liberty, II. 140. Where … Hymettus spread … to botanick hand the stores of health.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), V. 21. He probably engraved the botanic figures for Lobel’s Observations.
1842. Tennyson, Amphion, x. They read Botanic Treatises, And Works on Gardening thro’ there.
B. sb. † 1. One skilled in plants, a botanist. Obs.
1657. W. Coles, Adam in Eden, To Rdr. The Botanick is as commonly puzzled as satisfied.
1676. Worlidge, Bees (1691), 38. A tree esteemed … by our modern Botanicks.
† 2. Chiefly in pl. botanics. [cf. physics, mathematics.] The science of plants; = BOTANY. Obs.
1698. Phil. Trans., XX. 463. Such as are advanced in the Knowledge of Botanicks.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 182. He had no skill in botanicks.
1758. Monthly Rev., 592. Supereminent skill in botanics.
