III. THEOPHRASTUS 
Theophrastus,* the “father of botany,” who succeeded Aris- 
totle as President of the Lyceum 322 B. C., mentions in his His- 
tory of Plants 438 species as identified by Sprengel. He also 
mentions others not identified, and it is further probable that 
many of his descriptions have not come down to us. Among 
them there may have been a description of Aster that is lost. 
His one reference to Aster is not the description which he might 
be expected to have written, but is a mere casual reference, and in 
the form of the diminutive aszeriscus, dateptaxos. Evidently aster- 
iscus was a plant familiar to Theophrastus and to the Greeks 
among whom he wrote, and was a type long known before, its 
name having now already reached the diminutive stage (see p. 11). 
Theophrastus’ asteriscus is mentioned (bk. IV, ch. 13, p. 487) 
in a chapter treating of oyovoc (Schoenus) rendered juncus by Theo- 
dorus Gaza + and including species of Juncus, Schoenus, Scirpus 
and /solepis as more recently classed. Theophrastus begins by 
distinguishing three kinds of rush or oyoivoc, of which the second 
is characterized partly by its bearing black seeds similar to asteris- 
cus seeds in shape. Theophrastus calls this second kind zdezep0¢ 
or pehayxpavic poy, rendered by Gaza “ frugifer sive atriferum,” by 
Bodaeus “melancranis sive atriceps’”’; identified by Billerbeck 
(Flora classica, 17) as Scerpus Holoschoenus 1.., the /solepis Holo- 
schoenus R. et S., of later authors, a common plant of Greek 
shores: identified by Schneider and Sprengel as Schoenus nigri- 
cans L.., which is also still found in southern Greece, etc. 
this »elancranis, Theophrastus, describing the seed remarks, 
tO oxeppdrteov . . . Tpogspwspes TH TOV datsptoxov . . . Thhy aps- 
vyvorsoov ; in Gaza’s translation “ Nigrum non absimile semini 
herbae inguinalis, verum exilius.” 
STA ene Rt ener ee Sie nian nero oe se 
* Theophrastus Eresius, De historia et de causis plantarum: first printed, Gaza’s 
Latin translation, Tarvisii, 1483 : first in the original Greek by Aldus, Venice, 1504, 
My references are to the Stapelian edition, Amsterdam, 1644, by Bodaeus a Stapel. 
Theodorus Gaza, 1400-1478, born in Thessalonica, and of high position there ; 
fled from its destruction by the Turks, 1430; was pursuing studies at Padua, 1440; 
later, at Ferrara ; was invited to Rome 145! by Pope Nicholas V, and remained there 
chiefly to his death in Calabria, 1478 ; had brought with him to Italy, MSS. of Aristotle 
and Theophrastus ‘* which,’’ says Sprengel, Geschichte, i., 1: 303, ‘‘he so translated 
into Latin as to indicate his facility rather than true knowledge,’’ perhaps about 1451. 
