On the Names of Plants

Apollodorus wrote on odors, according to Pliny, books 21 and 13. The same author, in books 20 and 24, mentions Apollodorus of Tarentum and another of Citium, both of whom were physicians.

Apollonius composed a work on easily obtainable medicines, according to Galen in the preface to book 6 of On Simples, where he enumerates the writers on simple drugs. He does not express, however, from what place he came, since there were several physicians by this name, such as two from Antioch, one from Memphis, one from Pitane, and a fourth surnamed Mys. That the Memphite indeed composed something on plants is established from the Scholia on Nicander’s Theriaca. Galen mentions Claudius Apollonius the physician in the second book On Antidotes. But there are also many other writers of easily obtainable remedies who did not write on plants explicitly, but recorded certain things about them in passing.

Archigenes: among the more recent physicians, Galen wrote much in various places concerning the use of remedies in his therapeutic books.

Archilochus says that cytisus is useful for cattle because it increases milk, according to the Scholia on Nicander’s Theriaca.

Aristenas, as one who wrote something on plants, Ibidem.

Aristogiton celebrated the herb anonymon, according to Pliny.

Aristophilus, a pharmacist of Plataea, used to say that certain wonderful powers of herbs had been discovered by him, according to Theophrastus, History of Plants, 9.19.

Aristotle’s books on plants are obscure, and have been made even more obscure because of that mutation through various languages. Andreas de Laguna translated them, as did a certain other unnamed person. They are cited in some places by Athenaeus. I am aware of the conjecture of Agostino Nifo, who thinks the books ascribed to Theophrastus are Aristotle’s; and I do not approve of those two short ones attributed to Aristotle being [thought] to be by Theophrastus.

Aristotle’s problems concerning the genus of plants and potherbs are read in the 36th section of his Problems.

Asclepiades the physician is cited by Pliny in books 7, 15, 20, and seven others in succession. He writes very many things about him in book 26, chapter 3, likewise book 7, chapter 37, and book 25, chapter 1.

No one wrote as well concerning all simple medicines as Dioscorides, unless one also praises the Tanitrum of Asclepiades (Τάνιτρον τὸ Ασκληπιάδου), who indeed deserves to be praised, except in those matters where he attempts to assign the causes of things, according to Galen. I conjecture that Tanitrum is the title of some book of which Asclepiades was the author.

Asclepiodotus of Alexandria was said from childhood to be of the readiest wit among his peers and most learned, so much so that he would inquire quite curiously into any thing he encountered, whether natural or artificial. Therefore, in a short time he had thoroughly perceived all the mixtures of colors which dyers use, and every kind of dyeing pertaining to garments, likewise the innumerable differences of woods, and