RE VISIO GENERIS 



A V 1 C E N N 1 A E 



(cum annotationibus diversis) 

 auctore 



R. C. Bakhuizen van den Brink. 



Introduction: The genus Avicennia was so caiied by LINNAEUS 

 in honour of AviCENNA, the mediaeval name for the celebrated Arabian 

 physician and philosopher ABU 'Ali AL- HUSAIN IBN 'ABDALLAH I BN SlNA, 

 in short IBN SlNA, born in 980 at Afshena in the district of Bokhara, who 

 died in June 1037 in his fifty-eighth year Hamadan in Persia, He wrote 

 several philosophical and medical works, of which the Canon Medicinae 

 tl023) was the most famous and at the same time the guide of medical 

 study in European universities in the Middle Ages. 



The oldest statements that have come to us, mention the Avicènnias 

 around the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. (See BRETZL Bot Forsch. Alexan- 

 derzuges ( 1 903)). Thus, an inscription from the Egyptian king ASSA (3580 

 —3536 B. C), found in the valley of Wadi Hamanat on the old caravan 

 route between Coptos (mod. Kuft) and Kosseir, mentions mangroves on 

 the Red Sea. Since Rhizophora does not occur further North than Massawa 

 and the Dahlak Archipelago, this mangrove referred to here, can be nothing 

 else but the Avicennia. Much later, ALEXANDER THE GREAT (* 355— f 323 

 B. C.) led long expeditions to Arabia, the Persian Gulf and India. The 

 botanical reports of these travels, i. e. those of NEARCHUS to the Persian 

 Gulf (325—324 B. C.) and of ANDROSTHENES of Thasos to Tylos and the 

 Bahrein-Islands (324-323 B. C , have only partly come to us through 

 THEOPHRASTUS (* Eresus in Lesbos 372- f Athens 287 B C>. 



The plant system followed by THEOPHRASTUS in his „ History of Plants" 

 was founded principally on comparisons between the different forms, the 

 habits and leaves of the plants known by him in the Mediterranean Sea; 

 this example was also followed by the later Greeks. So, the Avicennia was 

 pointed out tous, now with Olives ÇEXâa or 'E.kata = Olea europea 

 L ), now with Laurel {Daphne = â d cp.yy\ = Lauras nobilis L. = also Nerium 

 oleander L ), as it appears in the quotations from AGATHARCHIDES of Cnidus 

 (±140 B. C.) in STRABO's (born at Amasia in Pontus ± 63 — f ± 21 B.C.) 

 work on geography. 



As a collective work of general value for our subject, we can still use 

 the «Traité des Simples" by IBN EL-BEITHAR ( f 1248) (see BRETZL l.c p. 72 

 —76). Here also mention is made of Avicennias on the coasts of the Red 

 Sea and the Persian Gulf, quoted from the works of different Arabian writers. 



