NOTE TO THE INDEX OF PLANTS 



SPRENGEL made the first comprehensive attempt to determine 

 in modern nomenclature the plants mentioned by Theophrastus : 

 Wimmer gives the result in the Introduction to his 1842 edition. 

 Sprengel adopted the most probable identifications of earlier 

 botanists, supplemented by his own conjectures and Sibthorp's 

 exploration of the Greek flora. The ambitious but uncritical 

 Conspectus Florae, Classicae of Fraas did not add much to our 

 knowledge, which throughout had been vitiated by failure to 

 recognise the fact that the Mediterranean flora differed from 

 that of Western and Central Europe. Halacsy's Conspectus 

 Florae Graecae now gives us a scientific enumeration of the 

 native plants of Greece ; a Greek plant-name can be wedded to a 

 plant which at any rate is Greek. Incidentally much has been 

 cleared up by special research at the hands of De Candolle, 

 Hanbury, Yule, Schweinfurth, Bretzl, and others. 



The identifications in the following Index are drawn from 

 various sources ; for their selection in view of the botanical 

 data available I am indebted to Sir William Thiselton-Dyer. A 

 considerable number may be accepted as certain, many are 

 probable, some no more than possible. 



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