THEOPHRASTUS, THE FATHER OF BOTANY

Our knowledge of the agricultural practices of Greece and Rome are based on writings of the period. There were an enormous number of writings on agriculture, although most of them are lost we know about them from references made by others.

Theophrastus of Eresos (371-287 BCE)

The 2 botanical treatises of Theophrastus are the greatest treasury of botanical and horticultural information from antiquity and represent the culmination of a millennium of experience, observation, and science from Egypt and Mesopotamia. The first work, known by its Latin title, Historia de Plantis (Enquiry into Plants), and composed of 9 books (chapters is a better term), is largely descriptive. The 2nd treatise, De Causis Plantarum (Of Plants, an Explanation), is more philosophic, as indicated by the title. The works are lecture notes rather than textbooks and were presumably under continual revision. The earliest extant manuscript, Codex Urbinas of the Vatican Library, dates from the 11th century and contains both treatises. Although there have been numerous editions, translations, and commentaries, the only published translation in English of Historia de Plantis is by (appropriately) Sir Arthur Hort (1916) and of De Causis Plantarum is by Benedict Einarson and George K.K. Link (1976). Both are available as volumes of the Loeb Classical Library.

Theophrastus (divine speaker), the son of a fuller (dry cleaner using clay), was born at Eresos, Lesbos, about 371 BCE and lived to be 85. His original name, Tyrtamos, was changed by Aristotle because of his oratorical gifts. He came to Athens to study under Aristotle, 12 years his senior, at the Lyceum, a combination school, museum, and research center under the patrimony of Alexander. The Lyceum of Aristotle was to Plato's Academy as the land-grant colleges were to the established universities. Theophrastus inherited Aristotle's library, manuscripts, and gardens and succeeded him as head of the Lyceum, serving in that capacity for 35 years. His students (disciples) numbered over 2000. Diogenes Laertios lists 227 treatises attributable to Theophrastus, but the main works that have survived intact include his 2 botanical treatises and one on stones. Various fragments also exist on such diverse topics as odors, winds, and sweat. Theophrastus is also the author (perhaps editor) of a series of 30 character sketches of human weaknesses that have been considered a minor literary masterpiece for over 23 centuries. His influence was enormous.

Theophrastus, called the Father of Botany, might better be called the Father of Horticultural Science. He mentions over 300 species, practically all cultivated and most of them horticultural. The 2 treatises are a mixture of personal observations and reports of others, probably traveling students, but Theophrastus often specifically interjects his own belief. The striking feature is the systematic approach to information and the extensive compilation of botanical facts and plant lore. He is interested in the great problems of botany. How do plants grow and reproduce? How should plants be described and classified? What is the variation inherent in plant life, and what is its cause? What accounts for the geographic distribution in vegetation?

While interested in plants for their own sake, he was also concerned with the human applications of botany, in short, a horticulturist. Throughout, the work is infused with facts and the spirit is rational. He distinguishes between sexual and vegetative reproduction, dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous plants, and angiosperms and gymnosperms. On the horticultural level, he gives technical descriptions of graftage and cuttage and discusses the role of pollination of date palms and the caprification of fig.

Theophrastus's 2 treatises on plants are not scientific in the modern sense, for they represent descriptive rather than experimental science. Despite their clarity of thought and rational reasoning, one searches in vain for evidence on the mode of investigation or a process of verification. There are only facts and conclusions. There are brilliant insights, but also embarrassing credulity.

Theophrastus was centuries ahead of his time and little was added of substance until the Renaissance. Yet his influence in the medieval period was much less than that of Dioscorides of Anazarbos, a Roman physician of the 1st century and author of Materia Medica, who merely catalogued and described plants but proscribed medicinal uses, mostly fanciful. Thus the herbal tradition derived from Dioscorides, replacing the scientific spirit of Theophrastus, was responsible for the actual loss of botanical information. The significance of sexuality in plants, clearly defined by Theophrastus in his description of dates, seems to have been forgotten until its reintroduction in 1694 by Stephan Hales and Rudolph Jakob Camerarius. Modern botany and horticultural science are in one sense a return to the Theophrastian tradition.

Selections from Book I of De Causis Plantarum, translated as "The Modes of Propagation in Woody and Herbaceous Plants" and "Propagation in Another Tree: Grafting," are particularly rich in horticultural allusions. Although Theophrastus felt obliged to list spontaneous generation as a means of propagation, he is quick to note that most examples are better explained by imported seeds or very small, unnoticed seed. His discussion of grafting is very up-to-date and with little editing would be appropriate for a modern manual. Theophrastus’s discussion of the effects of scion selection and rootstocks forms the basis of modern fruit culture.

References:

Einarson, Benedict, and George K.K. Link (translators). 1976. Theophrastus: De causis Plantarum. William Heinemann, London.
Greene, Edward Lee. 1983. Landmarks of Botanical History. (rev. ed.). Stanford University Press, Stanford. p. 128-211.
Hort, Sir Arthur (translator). 1916. Theophrastus: Enquiry into Plants (2 vol.). G.P. Putnam, William Heinemann, London.
Sarton, George. 1953. A History of Science: Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece. Oxford University Press, Oxford. p. 547-561.
Singer, Charles. 1921. Greek Biology and its Relation to the Rise of Modern Biology. p. 1-101. In: C. Singer (ed.). Studies in the History and Method of Science. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, Oxford.