The Amazing Adventures of Archibald Esq.

Horticultural Hound: Theophrastus, the Greek

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Now that it is winter, it is the time for all those with horticultural inclinations to give pause and thought to the possibilities and multiple powers of plants. It also pays, in the season of nature’s sleep, to give some thought to the history of horticultural pursuits.

Theophrastus the Greek was born over 2,000 years ago. Whewhf! Awoof! That’s a whole lot of springs and winters!

And although his De Historia Plantarum and De Causis Plantarum is now largely ignored, it is a veritable mine of information.

Theophrastus was essentially the first botanical taxonomist. His work surveyed around 500 plants divided into trees, shrubs, sub-shrubs and herbs. His taxonomy covers Mediterranean plants but also includes some from much farther afield, such as pepper and cinnamon — partly as a result of interviewing the scientists who accompanied Alexander the Great on his conquests.

He was particularly interested in cereals, vegetables and of course the vine, the date, the olive and the fig. And was the first horticulturalist to describe hand pollination of the date palm. His details on fig caprification show that the ancient farmers really knew their stuff!

In order to prevent the loss of their cultivar figs the farmers arranged that ripe wild figs were hung in orchards of the cultivars at embryo stage, or even went so far as to interplant the early, intermediate and late cultivars (you get three crops per annum in the Mediterranean) with the appropriate wild variety. They were aware of the galls which develop in the inedible or goat-fig and were aware of the insect which came out of the ripe fruit and entered the embryo fruit, allowing it to develop to an edible fig.

The flower of a fig is very unusual in that it is completely enclosed within the fig itself and never seen — male flowers at the top and female below. It is fertilised by a tiny wasp which leaves the ripe fig and enters the embryo fig via a minute hole at the top, which is hidden by overlapping scales.

Each species of fig has developed a symbiosis with a different wasp over the last 100 million years. But what makes the observations of those Greek farmers so amazing is that it has taken until the last three decades of this century, for the life cycle of the fig wasp to be completely elucidated.

Like the primrose, the fig exhibits heterostyly and has trees with short styles which develop the galls providing food for the wasps to develop and leading to the inedible goat-figs; or those trees with long styles where the pollen from the wasp fertilises the embryo fig producing the edible fig with seeds.

Theophrastus also must have questioned carpenters as he has lots of detail on the uses of different woods. ‘Wood which is too green closes up again when sawn, and the sawdust catches in the saw’s teeth and clogs them; wherefore the teeth of the saw are set alternate ways, to get rid of the sawdust.’

‘Maple is used for making beds and yokes of beasts of burden. Yew for the ornamental work attached to chests and footstools. Kermes-oak for the axles of wheel barrows and the cross bars of lyres and psalteries; beech for the making of waggons and cheap carts; elm for the making of doors and weasel-traps.’

‘Silver-Fir was considered the strongest and once glued never came apart. It was, together with cedar used for boat building. Silver-fir also gives timber of the greatest lengths and of the straightest growth; wherefore yard-arms and masts are made from it.’

‘For triremes and long ships are made of silver-fir, because it does not decay…but the keel for a trireme is made of oak, that it may stand the hauling. However oak wood does not join well with glue on to fir or silver-fir; for the one is of close, the other of open grain, the one is uniform, the other not so.’

‘The wood of the elm is least likely to warp; wherefore they make the hinges of doors out of elm wood; for if these hold, the doors also keep in place. They make the hinges by putting wood from the root above and wood from the foliage below, thus reversing the natural position. For when these are fitted the one into the other, each counteracts the other, as they naturally tend in opposite directions; whereas if the wood were set as it grows, all the parts would give when the strain came… elm does not decay if exposed to the air, nor oak if it is buried or soaked in water; for it appears to be entirely proof against decay; wherefore they built vessels out of it for use on rivers and lakes, but in sea water it rots, though other woods last all the better.’

Elsewhere Theophrastus discusses seed sowing, germination times, watering and feeding. There are hints on propagation by cuttings or by seed. His work also contains sections on oils, perfumes and odours; sections on drugs, cures and antidotes - ‘Hemlock has virtues of a poison which produces an easy and painless end.’

In short, a fascinating ancient guide to the horticultural arts and much else as well.

SuperWoof to Theophrastus!

Awoof, Archie

Posted 12 Jan 09