112 Aster History; ARISTOTLE 
Aristotle’s darzoras, “starred,” was not a plant name but de- 
noted respectively a species of falcon, of heron and of weasel. 
Aristotle’s De plantis, so called, is not now regarded as written 
by him, but by Nicolaos Damascenos,* himself a second Aristotle 
of three centuries later. It contains no formal description of in- 
dividual plants, nor any mention of asters, nor of a nearer relative 
perhaps than Absinthium + and Centaurea. It is devoted to the 
physiology of plants, undertaking interesting though then insoluble 
inquiries into such subjects as ““ Why do the leaves fall,’ and ‘* Why 
is the leaf-green not continuous within,” etc. J. C. Scaliger (1484- 
1558) established the fact that it was not written by Aristotle ; 
Sprengel, 1807, classed it with the Byzantine period ; both thought 
it of very inferior merit. By Meyer,t 1854, its true authorship was 
established, and its author elevated nearer to his due position, 
Meyer remarking that it is a monumental work, the only one on 
plant physiology in the 1500 years from Theophrastus to Albertus 
Magnus. Its history has been a series of the most singular vicis- 
situdes, surviving only for a time in its original Greek, and in 
Syriac translation from that, and in an Arabic translation from the 
latter by Isaac Ben Honain; time has swept all three away; but 
it had been translated from the Arabic back into Latin by one 
Alfred who was known to Roger of Hereford of about 1170 
A.D., and was probably the Norman Alfred known as de Sarchel. 
From this Latin retranslation it was again retranslated into Greek 
by one Maximus, so Hermolaus Barbarus, 1454-1493, informs us, 
probably by Maximus Planudes, of date 1 350; and it is this 
Greek version which is at present known, and the imperfections in 
it censured by Scaliger are in fact chargeable, says Meyer, to 
failures on the part of its last translator. 
* Nicolaos Damascenos, friend of Herod the Great, and of Augustus, to whose 
court he came, B.C. 5, with commendations from Herod ; he was born in Damascus, 
was also called ‘of Laodicea,” was greatly esteemed as historian, poet, philosopher 
and statesman ; August ug 
edies, from one of which a fragment of 45 
philosophical treatises of his own. Se¢ © 
+ Or. ot 2a, ver, Geschi anik, I: 
324, also, Meyer’s edition of Re ed: Lice 7 ota Toe 
cree epi puray or De plantis, 1, 14; page 26 of edn. Didot, Paris, 1878. 
ne 2 "ie in Abd-Allatif on Egypt, passages ascribed by him to Nicolaos which 
ntical with the corresponding passages in the so-called Aristotle («de plants.” — 
