BOTANIST

Life
Theophrastus was born in Eresus, on the island of Lesbos. His real name was Tyrtamus, but was called Theophrastus (= divine of expression) on account of his eloquence. He studied with Aristotle, and succeeded him as the head of the Peripatetic School, or Lyceum. He certainly proved himself a worthy successor, for not only did he attract some 2000 pupils to the school, but he remained in charge of it for 34 years. In his philosophy he followed Aristotle, often expanding his theories but never rejecting them. He abhorred prejudice and superstition, and taught his pupils to live an honorable life. This, however, did not prevent him from being accused - like Aristotle before him - of impiety, a charge of which he was cleared by the Areopagus.


Work
Theophrastus wrote 232 treatises, of which only the following survive:

1) "Enquiry into plants", in ten books.

2) "Etiology of plants", in six books. This work is considered more philosophical than the first, and earned Theophrastus the title of father of botany. A continuation of the "Enquiry", it attempts to explain the differences between plants on the basis of Aristotle's 4 causes: material, formal, efficient and final. These two works contain not only all the lore of the herbalist physicians and the experience of the country people, but also much information based on personal observation. His observation of plants is extremely detailed, and many of his descriptions could have been written today. These two works list a total of 550 plants that grow in the regions of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, which are classified into trees, shrubs and grasses. Grasses are classed as "potherbs, ornamentals and pharmaceuticals", plants as "many-rooted, few-rooted, single-rooted, deciduous and evergreen", trees as "upright and long-limbed, with or without offshoots, thin-barked, smooth-barked and root-barked", wood as "non-fibrous, venous, knotty, smooth, easily split, fragile, heavy".

3) "On rocks", fragment of a longer work on minerals.

4) "Characters", in 30 chapters. Extant only in fragments, this is a fine collection of portraits of human characters. While this work may have been the model for La Bruyere and Greece's own Andreas Laskaratos, neither of them achieved the elegance and limpidity of style characteristic of Theophrastus.

5) "On fire".

6) "On scents".

7) "On winds".

8) "On signs of weather". Extant in fragments.