The particular plants studied by Classical authors were sources of medicine or food as well as economic plants used for woodworking, perfume, dyeing, and wreath-making. Three writers whose works survive from the ancient world made significant contributions to the understanding of botany. Theophrastus defined “plant” and named and described parts of plants; he studied plant reproduction and the effect of climate, different soils, and the human contribution through farming. Dioscorides described medicinal plants and their uses, and established the practice of treating each plant in its own section. This practice allowed for an illustration to be set beside the description; the famous Vienna Codex of his De Materia Medica was a model followed by many botanists. Pliny the Elder was, for the most part, a compiler of botanical information, preserving material and anecdotes about plants from earlier writers. His work in Latin and through Arabic scholars transmitted ancient knowledge of plants to Western Europe.
...MoreBook Georgia L. Irby-Massie (2016) A Companion to Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome.
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