Historia Plantarum

Historia Plantarum (Latin: History of/Treatise on Plants) has been used as all or part of the name of several books, which include:

Historia Plantarum (Ray)

Historia Plantarum (The History of Plants) is a botany book by John Ray, published in 1686.

Publication

Historia Plantarum was published in three volumes: vol 1 in 1686, vol 2 in 1688, vol 3 in 1704. The third volume lacked plates, so Ray's assistant, the apothecary James Petiver, published Petiver's Catalogue, effectively a supplement containing the plates, in parts in 1715–1764. The work on the first two volumes was supported by subscriptions from the President and Fellows of the Royal Society.

Editions

References

Sources

Historia Plantarum (Theophrastus)

Theophrastus's Enquiry into Plants or Historia Plantarum (Greek: Περὶ φυτῶν ἱστορία, Peri phyton historia) was, along with Pliny the Elder's Natural History and Dioscorides's De Materia Medica, one of the most important books of natural history written in ancient times, and like them it was influential in the Renaissance. Theophrastus looks at plant structure, reproduction and growth; the varieties of plant around the world; wood; wild and cultivated plants; and their uses. Book 9 in particular, on the medicinal uses of plants, is one of the first herbals, describing juices, gums and resins extracted from plants, and how to gather them.

Historia Plantarum was written some time between c. 350 BC and c. 287 BC in ten volumes, of which nine survive. In the book, Theophrastus described plants by their uses, and attempted a biological classification based on how plants reproduced, a first in the history of botany. He continually revised the manuscript, and it remained in an unfinished state on his death. The condensed style of the text, with its many lists of examples, indicate that Theophrastus used the manuscript as the working notes for lectures to his students, rather than intending it to be read as a book.