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
