Enquiry into Plants, Volume II: Books 6-9

by Theophrastus, Arthur F. Hort (Translator)

Overview

The first fruits of Greek botany.

Theophrastus of Eresus in Lesbos, born about 370 BC, is the author of the most important botanical works that have survived from classical antiquity. He was in turn student, collaborator, and successor of Aristotle. Like his predecessor he was interested in all aspects of human knowledge and experience, especially natural science. His writings on plants form a counterpart to Aristotle’s zoological works.

In the Enquiry into Plants Theophrastus classifies and describes varieties—covering trees, plants of particular regions, shrubs, herbaceous plants, and cereals; in the last of the nine books he focuses on plant juices and medicinal properties of herbs. This edition is in two volumes; the second contains two additional treatises, On Odours and Weather Signs.

In De causis plantarum Theophrastus turns to plant physiology. Books 1 and 2 are concerned with generation, sprouting, flowering and fruiting, and the effects of climate. In Books 3 and 4 Theophrastus studies cultivation and agricultural methods. In Books 5 and 6 he discusses plant breeding; diseases and other causes of death; and distinctive flavors and odors. The Loeb Classical Library edition is in three volumes.

Theophrastus’ celebrated Characters is of a quite different nature. This collection of descriptive sketches is the earliest known character-writing and a striking reflection of contemporary life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674990883
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1916
Series:	Loeb Classical Library , #79
Edition description:	5th printing/1st pub.1916
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	868,074
Product dimensions:	4.25(w) x 6.38(h) x 0.95(d)
Language:	Greek, Ancient (to 1453)

About the Author

Sir Arthur Fenton Hort (1864–1935) was a botanist and Master at Harrow School.

Table of Contents

Book VI

Of Under-Shrubs

Of the classification of under-shrubs: the wild kinds: the chief distinction that between spinous and spineless

Of spineless under-shrubs and their differences

Of certain specially important spineless under-shrubs— silphium and magydaris—belonging to ferula-like plants

Of spinous under-shrubs and their differences

Of cultivated under-shrubs (coronary plants), with which are included those coronary plants which are herbaceous

Of the seasons at which coronary plants flower, and of the length of their life

Book VII

Of Herbaceous Plants, Other Than Coronary Plants: Pot-Herbs And Similar Wild Herbs

Of the times of sowing and of germination of pot-herbs

Of the propagation of pot-herbs, and of differences in their roots

Of the flowers and fruits of pot-herbs

Of the various forms of some pot-herbs

Of the cultivation of pot-herbs; manure and water

Of the pests which infest pot-herbs

Of the time for which seed of pot-herbs can be kept

Of uncultivated herbs: the wild forms of pot-herbs