Includes illustrations of coins and pottery, and botanical images of medieval manuscripts such as "De Materia Medica", as well as a bibliography. This book studies writers such as Menestor and Empedocles and gives an account of what was known or thought of about plants before the Lyceum of Aristotle expounds the writings of Theophrastus of Eresus.

The study and classification of plants was invented by Aristotle's pupil Theophrastus, and the world of the late antique dioscorides remained fundamental into early modern times - therefore, this book is of immense value for historians of science for all periods.