LANDMARKS OF BOTANICAL HISTORY GREENE 1 13 



family he gives the name yfxpBrfHcoSrjg, which in the Latin versions 

 had to be written Ferulaceae, from ferula — in Greek ya/j6tfS, a 

 stalk of fennel or of ferula — commonest umbellifers of the Mediter- 

 ranean region. Plainly the thistles and their natural allies were 

 accepted by him as constituting another such family group; for 

 he often refers to them under the collective name of auavScoSrjg, and 

 twice mentions that all of them are prickly-leaved herbs whose 

 flower consists of a head of florets, each floret sitting on the summit 

 of a seed.^ In Latin versions these are the Acanaceae, irovcv Cnicus 

 Acarna, Linn., one of the most common thistles of Greece and 

 Italy. Into this family Theophrastus admitted Dipsacus, the 

 leaves of which are not prickly, as he concedes, but on account 

 of its answering to the thistles in this, that its florets crown each 

 its seed. And Eryngium also, and not unnaturally, with its 

 spinescent foliage and capitate inflorescence, finds place among 

 the thistles rather than with the umbellifers. The numerous 

 cichoriaceous genera, with their peculiar habit, milky juice, and 

 sameness of character as to flower and fruit, formed also a family 

 with our Greek, who called it Hixoopioo6i]';,'^ which the Latins 

 wrote Cichoraceae. These for examples of his having given to 

 groups of genera class names and family names. Others need not 

 be cited; but it should be mentioned that the family relationship 

 of small groups of genera is in many an instance clearly seen by 

 him when no group name is used. The pines, fir, spruce, and larch 

 are discussed in a place by themselves; the various poplars, to- 

 gether with alder and birch, occupy successively another place, 

 and the same is true elsewhere in the dendrological chapters of the 

 book. The intimate relationship between the poppies and the 

 pond lilies was so clearly perceived by Theophrastus that, while 

 in general he seems to like to group things ecologically, the aquatics 

 in chapters apart from mesophytes, he nevertheless proceeds with- 

 out a halt from the papaveraceous plants of the grain fields to their 

 kindred of the lakes and rivers.'^ He perceived upon them all, th i 

 marks of one and the same family. 



It is again very interesting to note here and there a question 

 raised as to the extent of some family; whether such or such a 

 genus is or is not of the same family with such another, for ex- 

 ample: "Some affirm that cucumbers and squashes are as close y 

 interrelated as radishes and turnips are; others deny it."^ The 



1 Hist., Book i, ch. 22. ' Ibid., ix, ch. 13. 



' Ibid., vii, ch. 11. ♦ Ibid., vii, ch. 4. 



