ABSTRACT
Fifteen texts with botanical content remain from Phaenias, almost all coming from Athenaeus. Through him, we know that Phaenias, quoted under the title of Περὶ Φυτω̑ν or Φυτικά, wrote a phytological work in at least five books. As Wehrli has already described, he shared his botanical interest with his contemporary Theophrastus and he proves also to be a worthy student of Aristotle and representative of the Peripatos, last but not least through his scientific research. 1 In modern scholarship, however, interest in Phaenias as a botanist seems as limited as the surviving evidence suggests that it was in antiquity. 2 It seems worthwhile nevertheless to devote to the fragments once again the interest of a modern botanist, especially in light of the over thirty plants that are mentioned, which include not only commonly known species. Despite the small amount of text preserved, they suggest a work of quality. In the following, after previous identifications have been shown to be somewhat untenable from a modern 352point of view, a focus will be directed to new proposals for identification in problematic cases. I also attempt first to answer how this work of Phaenias may have been composed, and secondly, to what extent the characteristics of his botany may be revealed in relation to that of Theophrastus. In order to illustrate possible thematic links among the plants of Phaenias, in the following the fragments are handled in an order different from that of Wehrli or Engels. Initially a group of four texts is considered that may indicate, through book numbers, how Phaenias’ work On Plants was designed.
42
καὶ Φαινίας δὲ ἐν αʹ περὶ φυτω̑ν• “τὰ δὲ οὐδὲ φύει τὴν ἀνθήλην οὐδὲ τη̑ς σπερματικη̑ς ἴχνος κορυνήσεως οὐδὲ σπερματώσεως, οἱ̑ον μύκης, ὕδνον, πτέρις, ἕλιξ.” ὁ αὐτός φησι• “πτέρις, ἣν ἔνιοι βλάχνον καλου̑σι.”
Phaenias in his first book of On Plants (writes): “some produce no flower-tuft or trace of a seed-pod or seed-production, for instance the mushroom, truffle, fern, and ivy.” And the same author says: “the fern, which some authorities refer to as blachnon.”
(trans. Olson, modified by Engels)