[...]... fragments, and they consist of what appear to be lecture notes rather the Father of Botany than the texts of books The two exceptions are Theophrastus’s most important works: De historia plantarum (On the history of plants) and De causis plantarum (On the reasons for plant growth) With these works Theophrastus initiated the methodical study of plants Theophrastus grew plants in his own botanical garden and. .. that understanding The book has a glossary defining the technical terms used in the text, and for readers who would like to pursue the subject further there is a list of books and Web sites where they will be able to learn more xiii 1 The Father of Botany N atural history is the study of plants and animals, with the emphasis on observation rather than experiment People have always made use of plants, of... to be utilized They gathered plants for food and medicines and later they cultivated them; they constructed their buildings, boats, and many tools and utensils from plant materials; and they wove cotton, linen, hemp, and jute to make cloth Once writing was invented, people made paper from papyrus (a type of sedge), hemp, and cotton, before turning to wood pulp in modern times; all of these are plant... penalty Rather than stand trial, he left Athens and settled which is now lost (The in Chalcis (see the map on the previous page) He died the following Granger Collection) year tHeopHrAstus, tHe FAtHer oF BotAny When Aristotle quit Athens for the last time, he left his friend and assistant Theophrastus (ca 372–ca 287 b.c.e.) to lead the Peripatetic school In his will Aristotle bequeathed the Lyceum... different and only distantly related species The study of plant geography led to speculation about the ways plants adapt to their environment, which led in turn to the investigation of plant evolution Thousands of years ago our ancestors obtained their plant foods— fruits, seeds, leaves, and roots—by gathering them from plants growing wild Then they began to cultivate some of those plants and very slowly the. .. and in the service of, the Musaeum, which was a temple used as an academic institution and the origin of the word museum The managers of the library were instructed to collect all the information in the world Library representatives attended book fairs in Athens and Rhodes, and whenever a ship arrived in the port any books it carried would be seized and copied, the library retaining the originals and. .. Europe and headed eastward They defeated the Persians once more at Gaugemala, to the east of the Tigris River, occupied Babylon, and then captured Susa and the Persian capital, Persepolis, and Alexander was proclaimed king of Asia The Macedonians then resumed their pursuit of Darius, whom they found dying from wounds inflicted by one of his own noblemen—who was later captured by the Macedonians and punished... cooking, and wood to make tools and furniture It is not surprising, therefore, that people have been studying plants for thousands of years This book tells of that search for understanding and of some of the individuals who contributed to it Plants, one volume in the Discovering the Earth set, begins the story in ancient Greece, where philosophers first speculated about the origin of plants, and the study... access to the great library He became a surgeon in the Roman army during the reign of the emperor Nero, who ruled from 54 c.e to 68 c.e., and his travels with the army through Greece, Italy, Asia Minor (modern Turkey), and southern France gave him ample opportunity to study the medicinal plants and minerals in the territories he visited AlexAnder tHe greAt And His eMpire Aristotle taught Alexander (356–323... been doing these things for thousands upon thousands of years, but people gathering or cultivating plants and craftspersons converting plant materials into useful articles had no need to understand any more about the plants they used than their properties and how to exploit them It was not until the cultural flowering in ancient Greece that scholars began to speculate about the origins of plants, to . alt="" Food, Medicine, and the Green Earth Plants