Enquiry into Plants/Volume 1/Preface
PREFACE
This is, I believe, the first attempt at an English translation of the 'Enquiry into Plants.' That it should be found entirely satisfactory is not to be expected, since the translator is not, as he should be, a botanist; moreover, in the present state at least of the text, the Greek of Theophrastus is sometimes singularly elusive. I should never have undertaken such a responsibility without the encouragement of that veteran student of plant-lore the Rev. Canon Ellacombe, who first suggested that I should make the attempt and introduced me to the book. It is a great grief that he did not live to see the completion of the work which he set me. If I had thought it essential that a translator of Theophrastus should himself grapple with the difficulties of identifying the plants which he mentions, I must have declined a task which has otherwise proved quite onerous enough. However the kindness and the expert knowledge of Sir William Thiselton-Dyer came to my rescue; to him I not only owe gratitude for constant help throughout; the identifications in the Index of Plants are entirely his work, compared with which the compilation of the Index itself was but mechanical labour. And he has greatly increased my debt and the reader's by reading the proofs of my translation and of the Index. This is perhaps the place to add a note on the translation of the plant-names in the text:—where possible, I have given an English equivalent, though I am conscious that such names as 'Christ's thorn,' 'Michaelmas daisy' must read oddly in a translation of a work written 300 years before Christ; to print Linnean binary names would have been at least equally incongruous. Where an English name was not obvious, although the plant is British or known in British gardens, I have usually consulted Britten and Holland's Dictionary of Plant-names. Where no English equivalent could be found, i.e. chiefly where the plant is not either British or familiar in this country, I have either transliterated the Greek name (as arakhidna) or given a literal rendering of it in inverted commas (as 'foxbrush' for ἀλωπέκονρος); but the derivation of Greek plant-names being often obscure, I have not used this device unless the meaning seemed to be beyond question. In some cases it has been necessary to preserve the Greek name and to give the English name after it in brackets. This seemed desirable wherever the author has apparently used more than one name for the same plant, the explanation doubtless being that he was drawing on different local authorities thus κέρασος and λακάρη both probably represent 'bird-cherry,' the latter being the Macedonian name for the tree. Apart from this reason, in a few places (as 3.8.2; 3.10.3) it seemed necessary to give both the Greek and the English name in order to bring out some particular point. On the other hand one Greek name often covers several plants, e.g. λωτός; in such cases I hope that a reference to the Index will make all clear. Inverted commas indicate that the rendering is a literal translation of the Greek word; the indentification of the plant will be found in the Index. Thus φελλόδρυς is rendered 'cork-oak,' though 'holm-oak' would be the correct rendering,—cork-oak (quercus Suber) being what Theophrastus calls φελλός, which is accordingly rendered cork-oak without commas. As to the spelling of proper names, consistency without pedantry seems unattainable. One cannot write names such as Arcadia or Alexander otherwise than as they are commonly written; but I cannot bring myself to Latinise a Greek name if it can be helped, wherefore I have simply transliterated the less familiar names; the line drawn must of course be arbitrary.
The text printed is in the main that of Wimmer's second edition (see Introd. p. xiv). The textual notes are not intended as a complete apparatus criticus; to provide a satisfactory apparatus it would probably be necessary to collate the manuscripts afresh. I have had to be content with giving Wimmer's statements at MS. authority; this I have done wherever any question of interpretation depended on the reading; but I have not thought it necessary to record mere variations of spelling. Where the textual notes go beyond bare citation of the readings of the MSS., Ald., Gaza, and Pliny, it is usually because I have there departed from Wimmer's text. The references to Pliny will, I hope, be found fairly complete. I am indebted for most of them to Schneider, but I have verified these and all other references.
I venture to hope that this translation, with its references and Index of Plants, may assist some competent scholar-botanist to produce an edition worthy of the author.
Besides those already mentioned I have to thank also my friends Professor D'Arcy Thompson, C.B., Litt.D. of Dundee, Mr. A. W. Hill of Kew, Mr. E. A. Bowles for help of various kinds, and the Rev. F. W. Galpin for his learned exposition of a passage which otherwise would have been dark indeed to me—the description of the manufacture of the reed mouthpieces of wood-wind instruments in Book IV. Sir John Sandys, Public Orator of Cambridge University, was good enough to give me valuable help in matters of bibliography.