Perennial plant
A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. Some sources cite perennial plants being plants; the term is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is widely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody growth from trees and shrubs, which are technically perennials. Perennials small flowering plants, that grow and bloom over the spring and summer, die back every autumn and winter, return in the spring from their rootstock, are known as herbaceous perennials. However, depending on the rigors of local climate, a plant, a perennial in its native habitat, or in a milder garden, may be treated by a gardener as an annual and planted out every year, from seed, from cuttings or from divisions. Tomato vines, for example, live several years in their natural tropical/subtropical habitat but are grown as annuals in temperate regions because they don't survive the winter. There is a class of evergreen, or non-herbaceous, including plants like Bergenia which retain a mantle of leaves throughout the year.
An intermediate class of plants is known as subshrubs, which retain a vestigial woody structure in winter, e.g. Penstemon; the local climate may dictate whether plants are treated as perennials. For instance, many varieties of Fuchsia are shrubs in warm regions, but in colder temperate climates may be cut to the ground every year as a result of winter frosts; the symbol for a perennial plant, based on Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, is, the astronomical symbol for the planet Jupiter. Perennial plants can be short-lived or they can be long-lived, as are some woody plants like trees, they include a wide assortment of plant groups from ferns and liverworts to the diverse flowering plants like orchids and grasses. Plants that flower and fruit only once and die are termed monocarpic or semelparous. However, most perennials are polycarpic. Perennials grow structures that allow them to adapt to living from one year to the next through a form of vegetative reproduction rather than seeding; these structures include bulbs, woody crowns, rhizomes plus others.
They might have specialized stems or crowns that allow them to survive periods of dormancy over cold or dry seasons during the year. Annuals produce seeds to continue the species as a new generation while the growing season is suitable, the seeds survive over the cold or dry period to begin growth when the conditions are again suitable. Many perennials have developed specialized features that allow them to survive extreme climatic and environmental conditions; some have adapted to survive cold temperatures. Those plants tend to invest a lot of resource into their adaptations and do not flower and set seed until after a few years of growth. Many perennials produce large seeds, which can have an advantage, with larger seedlings produced after germination that can better compete with other plants; some annuals produce many more seeds per plant in one season, while some perennials are not under the same pressure to produce large numbers of seeds but can produce seeds over many years. Dividing perennial plants is something that gardeners do around the months of October.
The point of doing the division at this time is to allow 6 weeks for adequate root growth prior to the ground reaching a freezing temperature. Due to the leaves falling from trees, as well as the excessive amount of rain received in most places during the fall weeks, the ground has adequate moisture for rapid growth; each type of plant must be separated differently. However, plants such as Irises have a root system known as a Rhizomes, these root systems should be planted with the bulb of the plant just above ground level, with leaves from the following year showing; the point of dividing perennials is to increase the amount of a single breed of plant in your garden. The more you divide your perennial plants every year, the more vast your garden will grow. In warmer and more favorable climates, perennials grow continuously. In seasonal climates, their growth is limited to the growing season. In some species, perennials retain their foliage all year round. Other plants are deciduous perennials, for example, in temperate regions a perennial plant may grow and bloom during the warm part of the year, with the foliage dying back in the winter.
In many parts of the world, seasonality is expressed as wet and dry periods rather than warm and cold periods, deciduous perennials lose their leaves in the dry season. With their roots protected below ground in the soil layer, perennial plants are notably tolerant of wildfire. Herbaceous perennials are able to tolerate the extremes of cold in temperate and Arctic winters, with less sensitivity than trees or shrubs. Perennial plants can be differentiated from annuals and biennials in that perennials have the ability to remain dormant over long periods of time and continue growth and reproduction; the meristem of perennial plants communicates with the hormones produced due to environmental situations and stage of development to begin and halt the ability to grow or flower. There is a distinction between the ability to grow and actual task of growth. For example, most trees regain the ability to grow in the midst of winter but do not initiate physical growth until the spring and summer months.
The start of dormancy can be seen in perennials pla
Caryophyllales
Caryophyllales is an order of flowering plants that includes the cacti, amaranths, ice plants and many carnivorous plants. Many members are succulent, having fleshy leaves; the members of Caryophyllales include about 6% of eudicot species. This order is part of the core eudicots; the Caryophyllales contains 33 families, 692 genera and 11,155 species. The monophyly of the Caryophyllales has been supported by DNA sequences, cytochrome c sequence data and heritable characters such as anther wall development and vessel-elements with simple perforations; as with all taxa, the circumscription of Caryophyllales has changed within various classification systems. All systems recognize a core of families with centrospermous seeds. More recent treatments have expanded the Caryophyllales to include many carnivorous plants. Although the monophyly of the order has been supported, their placement is still uncertain. Systematists are undecided on whether Caryophyllales should be placed within the rosid complex or sister to the asterid clade.
The possible connection between sympetalous angiosperms and Caryophyllales was presaged by Bessey and others. This primitive flower might well be found in centrospermal stock as Wernham and Hutchinson have suggested.' "Caryophyllales is separated into two suborders: Polygonineae. These two suborders were recognized as two orders and Caryophyllales. Kewaceae, Macarthuriaceae and Petiveriaceae were added in APG IV; as circumscribed by the APG III system, this order includes the same families as the APG II system plus the new families, Lophiocarpaceae, Montiaceae and Anacampserotaceae. Family Achatocarpaceae family Aizoaceae family Amaranthaceae family Anacampserotaceae family Ancistrocladaceae family Asteropeiaceae family Barbeuiaceae family Basellaceae family Cactaceae family Caryophyllaceae family Didiereaceae family Dioncophyllaceae family Droseraceae family Drosophyllaceae family Frankeniaceae family Gisekiaceae family Halophytaceae family Kewaceae family Limeaceae family Lophiocarpaceae family Macarthuriaceae family Microteaceae family Molluginaceae family Montiaceae family Nepenthaceae family Nyctaginaceae family Petiveriaceae family Physenaceae family Phytolaccaceae family Plumbaginaceae family Polygonaceae family Portulacaceae family Rhabdodendraceae family Sarcobataceae family Simmondsiaceae family Stegnospermataceae family Talinaceae family Tamaricaceae As circumscribed by the APG II system, this order includes well-known plants like cacti, spinach, rhubarb, venus fly traps, bougainvillea.
Recent molecular and biochemical evidence has resolved additional well-supported clades within the Caryophyllales. Order Caryophyllales family Achatocarpaceae family Aizoaceae family Amaranthaceae family Anacampserotaceae family Ancistrocladaceae family Asteropeiaceae family Barbeuiaceae family Basellaceae family Cactaceae family Caryophyllaceae family Didiereaceae family Dioncophyllaceae family Droseraceae family Drosophyllaceae family Frankeniaceae family Gisekiaceae family Halophytaceae family Limeaceae family Lophiocarpaceae family Molluginaceae family Montiaceae family Nepenthaceae family Nyctaginaceae family Physenaceae family Phytolaccaceae family Plumbaginaceae family Polygonaceae family Portulacaceae family Rhabdodendraceae family Sarcobataceae family Simmondsiaceae family Stegnospermataceae family Talinaceae family Tamaricaceae This represents a slight change from the APG system, of 1998 order Caryophyllales family Achatocarpaceae family Aizoaceae family Amaranthaceae family Ancistrocladaceae family Asteropeiaceae family Basellaceae family Cactaceae family Caryophyllaceae family Didiereaceae family Dioncophyllaceae family Droseraceae family Drosophyllaceae family Frankeniaceae family Molluginaceae family Nepenthaceae family Nyctaginaceae family Physenaceae family Phytolaccaceae family Plumbaginaceae family Polygonaceae family Portulacaceae family Rhabdodendraceae family Sarcobataceae family Simmondsiaceae family Stegnospermataceae family Tamaricaceae The Cronquist system recognised the order, with this circumscription: order Caryophyllales family Achatocarpaceae family Aizoaceae family Amaranthaceae family Basellaceae family Cactaceae family Caryophyllaceae family Chenopodiaceae family Didiereaceae family Nyctaginaceae family Phytolaccaceae family Portulacaceae family MolluginaceaeThe difference with the order as recognized by APG lies in the first place in the concept of "order".
The APG favours much larger orders and families, the order Caryophyllales sensu APG should rather be compared to subclass Caryophyllidae sensu Cronquist. A part of the difference lies with; the plants in the Stegnospermataceae and Barbeuiaceae were included in Cronquist's Phytolaccaceae. The Chenopodiaceae are included in Amaranthaceae by APG. New to the order are the Asteropeiaceae and Physenaceae, each containing a single genus, two genera from Cronquist's order Nepenthales. Earlier systems, such as the Wettstein system, last edition in 1935, the Engler system
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago. Earth's gravity interacts with other objects in space the Sun and the Moon, Earth's only natural satellite. Earth revolves around the Sun in a period known as an Earth year. During this time, Earth rotates about its axis about 366.26 times. Earth's axis of rotation is tilted with respect to its orbital plane; the gravitational interaction between Earth and the Moon causes ocean tides, stabilizes Earth's orientation on its axis, slows its rotation. Earth is the largest of the four terrestrial planets. Earth's lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of Earth's surface is covered with water by oceans; the remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere.
The majority of Earth's polar regions are covered in ice, including the Antarctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the Arctic ice pack. Earth's interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the Earth's magnetic field, a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics. Within the first billion years of Earth's history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earth's atmosphere and surface, leading to the proliferation of aerobic and anaerobic organisms; some geological evidence indicates. Since the combination of Earth's distance from the Sun, physical properties, geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive. In the history of the Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely. Over 7.6 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and natural resources for their survival.
Humans have developed diverse cultures. The modern English word Earth developed from a wide variety of Middle English forms, which derived from an Old English noun most spelled eorðe, it has cognates in every Germanic language, their proto-Germanic root has been reconstructed as *erþō. In its earliest appearances, eorðe was being used to translate the many senses of Latin terra and Greek γῆ: the ground, its soil, dry land, the human world, the surface of the world, the globe itself; as with Terra and Gaia, Earth was a personified goddess in Germanic paganism: the Angles were listed by Tacitus as among the devotees of Nerthus, Norse mythology included Jörð, a giantess given as the mother of Thor. Earth was written in lowercase, from early Middle English, its definite sense as "the globe" was expressed as the earth. By Early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, the earth became the Earth when referenced along with other heavenly bodies. More the name is sometimes given as Earth, by analogy with the names of the other planets.
House styles now vary: Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, with the capitalized form an acceptable variant. Another convention capitalizes "Earth" when appearing as a name but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the, it always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as "what on earth are you doing?" The oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4.5672±0.0006 billion years ago. By 4.54±0.04 Bya the primordial Earth had formed. The bodies in the Solar System evolved with the Sun. In theory, a solar nebula partitions a volume out of a molecular cloud by gravitational collapse, which begins to spin and flatten into a circumstellar disk, the planets grow out of that disk with the Sun. A nebula contains gas, ice grains, dust. According to nebular theory, planetesimals formed by accretion, with the primordial Earth taking 10–20 million years to form. A subject of research is the formation of some 4.53 Bya. A leading hypothesis is that it was formed by accretion from material loosed from Earth after a Mars-sized object, named Theia, hit Earth.
In this view, the mass of Theia was 10 percent of Earth, it hit Earth with a glancing blow and some of its mass merged with Earth. Between 4.1 and 3.8 Bya, numerous asteroid impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment caused significant changes to the greater surface environment of the Moon and, by inference, to that of Earth. Earth's atmosphere and oceans were formed by volcanic outgassing. Water vapor from these sources condensed into the oceans, augmented by water and ice from asteroids and comets. In this model, atmospheric "greenhouse gases" kept the oceans from freezing when the newly forming Sun had only 70% of its current luminosity. By 3.5 Bya, Earth's magnetic field was established, which helped prevent the atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind. A crust formed; the two models that explain land mass propose either a steady growth to the present-day forms or, more a rapid growth early in Earth history followed by a long-term steady continental area. Continents formed by plate tectonics
Jupiter (mythology)
Jupiter known as Jove, was the god of the sky and thunder and king of the gods in Ancient Roman religion and mythology. Jupiter was the chief deity of Roman state religion throughout the Republican and Imperial eras, until Christianity became the dominant religion of the Empire. In Roman mythology, he negotiates with Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, to establish principles of Roman religion such as offering, or sacrifice. Jupiter is thought to have originated as an aerial god, his identifying implement is the thunderbolt and his primary sacred animal is the eagle, which held precedence over other birds in the taking of auspices and became one of the most common symbols of the Roman army. The two emblems were combined to represent the god in the form of an eagle holding in its claws a thunderbolt seen on Greek and Roman coins; as the sky-god, he was a divine witness to oaths, the sacred trust on which justice and good government depend. Many of his functions were focused on the Capitoline Hill.
In the Capitoline Triad, he was the central guardian of the state with Minerva. His sacred tree was the oak; the Romans regarded Jupiter as the equivalent of the Greek Zeus, in Latin literature and Roman art, the myths and iconography of Zeus are adapted under the name Iuppiter. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Jupiter was the brother of Neptune and Pluto, the Roman equivalents of Poseidon and Hades respectively; each presided over one of the three realms of the universe: sky, the waters, the underworld. The Italic Diespiter was a sky god who manifested himself in the daylight identified with Jupiter. Tinia is regarded as his Etruscan counterpart; the Romans believed that Jupiter granted them supremacy because they had honoured him more than any other people had. Jupiter was "the fount of the auspices upon which the relationship of the city with the gods rested." He personified the divine authority of Rome's highest offices, internal organization, external relations. His image in the Republican and Imperial Capitol bore regalia associated with Rome's ancient kings and the highest consular and Imperial honours.
The consuls swore their oath of office in Jupiter's name, honoured him on the annual feriae of the Capitol in September. To thank him for his help, they offered him a white ox with gilded horns. A similar offering was made by triumphal generals, who surrendered the tokens of their victory at the feet of Jupiter's statue in the Capitol; some scholars have viewed the triumphator as embodying Jupiter in the triumphal procession. Jupiter's association with kingship and sovereignty was reinterpreted as Rome's form of government changed. Rome was ruled by kings. Nostalgia for the kingship was considered treasonous; those suspected of harbouring monarchical ambitions were punished, regardless of their service to the state. In the 5th century BC, the triumphator Camillus was sent into exile after he drove a chariot with a team of four white horses —an honour reserved for Jupiter himself; when Marcus Manlius, whose defense of the Capitol against the invading Gauls had earned him the name Capitolinus, was accused of regal pretensions, he was executed as a traitor by being cast from the Tarpeian Rock.
His house on the Capitoline Hill was razed, it was decreed that no patrician should be allowed to live there. Capitoline Jupiter found himself in a delicate position: he represented a continuity of royal power from the Regal period, conferred power on the magistrates who paid their respects to him. During the Conflict of the Orders, Rome's plebeians demanded the right to hold political and religious office. During their first secessio, they threatened to found their own; when they agreed to come back to Rome they vowed the hill where they had retreated to Jupiter as symbol and guarantor of the unity of the Roman res publica. Plebeians became eligible for all the magistracies and most priesthoods, but the high priest of Jupiter remained the preserve of patricians. Jupiter was served by the patrician Flamen Dialis, the highest-ranking member of the flamines, a college of fifteen priests in the official public cult of Rome, each of whom was devoted to a particular deity, his wife, the Flaminica Dialis, had her own duties, presided over the sacrifice of a ram to Jupiter on each of the nundinae, the "market" days of a calendar cycle, comparable to a week.
The couple were required to marry by the exclusive patrician ritual confarreatio, which included a sacrifice of spelt bread to Jupiter Farreus. The office of Flamen Dialis was circumscribed by several unique ritual prohibitions, some of which shed light on the sovereign nature of the god himself. For instance, the flamen may remove his clothes or apex only when under a roof, in order to avoid showing himself naked to the sky—that is, "as if under the eyes of Jupiter" as god of the heavens; every time the Flaminica saw a lightning bolt or heard a clap of thunder, she was prohibited from carrying on with her normal routine until she placated the god. Some privileges of the flamen of Jupiter may reflect the regal nature of Jupiter: he had the use of the curule chair, was the
Mary, mother of Jesus
Mary was a 1st-century BC Galilean Jewish woman of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus, according to the New Testament and the Quran. The gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament and the Quran describe Mary as a virgin; the miraculous conception took place when she was betrothed to Joseph. She accompanied Joseph to Bethlehem; the Gospel of Luke begins its account of Mary's life with the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced her divine selection to be the mother of Jesus. According to canonical gospel accounts, Mary was present at the crucifixion and is depicted as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. According to Catholic and Orthodox teachings, at the end of her earthly life her body was raised directly into Heaven. Mary has been venerated since early Christianity, is considered by millions to be the most meritorious saint of the religion, she is claimed to have miraculously appeared to believers many times over the centuries. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches believe that Mary, as mother of Jesus, is the Mother of God.
There is significant diversity in the Marian beliefs and devotional practices of major Christian traditions. The Catholic Church holds distinctive Marian dogmas, namely her status as the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her perpetual virginity, her Assumption into heaven. Many Protestants minimize Mary's role within Christianity, basing their argument on the relative brevity of biblical references. Mary has a revered position in Islam, where one of the longer chapters of the Quran is devoted to her. Mary's name in the original manuscripts of the New Testament was based on her original Aramaic name מרים, translit. Maryam or Mariam; the English name Mary comes from the Greek Μαρία, a shortened form of Μαριάμ. Both Μαρία and Μαριάμ appear in the New Testament. In Christianity, Mary is referred to as the Virgin Mary, in accordance with the belief that she conceived Jesus miraculously through the Holy Spirit without her husband's involvement. Among her many other names and titles are the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Mary, the Mother of God, the Theotokos, Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, although the title "Queen of Heaven" was a name for a pagan goddess being worshipped during the prophet Jeremiah's lifetime.
Titles in use vary among Anglicans, Catholics, Protestants and other Christians. The three main titles for Mary used by the Orthodox are Theotokos, Aeiparthenos as confirmed in the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, Panagia. Catholics use a wide variety of titles for Mary, these titles have in turn given rise to many artistic depictions. For example, the title Our Lady of Sorrows has inspired such masterpieces as Michelangelo's Pietà; the title Theotokos was recognized at the Council of Ephesus in 431. The direct equivalents of title in Latin are Deipara and Dei Genetrix, although the phrase is more loosely translated into Latin as Mater Dei, with similar patterns for other languages used in the Latin Church. However, this same phrase in Greek, in the abbreviated form ΜΡ ΘΥ, is an indication attached to her image in Byzantine icons; the Council stated that the Church Fathers "did not hesitate to speak of the holy Virgin as the Mother of God". Some Marian titles have a direct scriptural basis.
For instance, the title "Queen Mother" has been given to Mary since she was the mother of Jesus, sometimes referred to as the "King of Kings" due to his ancestral descent from King David. Other titles have arisen from special appeals, or occasions for calling on Mary. To give a few examples, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Our Lady of Navigators, Our Lady Undoer of Knots fit this description. In Islam, she is known as mother of Isa, she is referred to by the honorific title sayyidatuna, meaning "our lady". A related term of endearment is Siddiqah, meaning "she who confirms the truth" and "she who believes sincerely completely". Another title for Mary is Qānitah, which signifies both constant submission to God and absorption in prayer and invocation in Islam, she is called "Tahira", meaning "one, purified" and representing her status as one of two humans in creation to not be touched by Satan at any point. The Gospel of Luke mentions Mary the most identifying her by name twelve times, all of these in the infancy narrative.
The Gospel of Matthew mentions her by name six times, five of these in the infancy narrative and only once outside the infancy narrative. The Gospel of Mark names her once and mentions her as Jesus' mother without naming her in 3:31 and 3:32; the Gospel of John never mentions her by name. Described as Jesus' mother, she makes two appearances, she is first seen at the wedding at Cana. The second reference, listed only in this gospel, has her standing near the cross of Jesus together with Mary Magdalene, Mary of Clopas (or Cleophas
Sepal
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms. Green, sepals function as protection for the flower in bud, as support for the petals when in bloom; the term sepalum was coined by Noël Martin Joseph de Necker in 1790, derived from the Greek σκεπη, a covering. Collectively the sepals are called the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower; the word calyx was adopted from the Latin calyx, not to be confused with a cup or goblet. Calyx derived from the Greek κάλυξ, a bud, a calyx, a husk or wrapping, while calix derived from the Greek κυλιξ, a cup or goblet, the words have been used interchangeably in botanical Latin. After flowering, most plants have no more use for the calyx which becomes vestigial; some plants retain a thorny calyx, either dried or live, as protection for seeds. Examples include species of Acaena, some of the Solanaceae, the water caltrop, Trapa natans. In some species the calyx not only persists after flowering, but instead of withering, begins to grow until it forms a bladder-like enclosure around the fruit.
This is an effective protection against some kinds of birds and insects, for example in Hibiscus trionum and the Cape gooseberry. Morphologically, both sepals and petals are modified leaves; the calyx and the corolla are the outer sterile whorls of the flower, which together form what is known as the perianth. The term tepal is applied when the parts of the perianth are difficult to distinguish, e.g. the petals and sepals share the same color, or the petals are absent and the sepals are colorful. When the undifferentiated tepals resemble petals, they are referred to as "petaloid", as in petaloid monocots, orders of monocots with brightly coloured tepals. Since they include Liliales, an alternative name is lilioid monocots. Examples of plants in which the term tepal is appropriate include genera such as Tulipa. In contrast, genera such as Rosa and Phaseolus have well-distinguished petals; the number of sepals in a flower is its merosity. Flower merosity is indicative of a plant's classification.
The merosity of a eudicot flower is four or five. The merosity of a monocot or palaeodicot flower is a multiple of three; the development and form of the sepals vary among flowering plants. They may be fused together; the sepals are much reduced, appearing somewhat awn-like, or as scales, teeth, or ridges. Most such structures protrude until the fruit is mature and falls off. Examples of flowers with much reduced perianths are found among the grasses. In some flowers, the sepals are fused towards the base. In other flowers a hypanthium includes the bases of sepals and the attachment points of the stamens. Plant morphology
Theophrastus
Theophrastus, a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age and studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death, he attached himself to Aristotle; when Aristotle fled Athens, Theophrastus took over as head of the Lyceum. Theophrastus presided over the Peripatetic school for thirty-six years, during which time the school flourished greatly, he is considered the father of botany for his works on plants. After his death, the Athenians honoured him with a public funeral, his successor as head of the school was Strato of Lampsacus. The interests of Theophrastus were wide ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics, his two surviving botanical works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, were an important influence on Renaissance science. There are surviving works On Moral Characters, On Sense Perception, On Stones, fragments on Physics and Metaphysics. In philosophy, he continued Aristotle's work on logic.
He regarded space as the mere arrangement and position of bodies, time as an accident of motion, motion as a necessary consequence of all activity. In ethics, he regarded happiness as depending on external influences as well as on virtue. Most of the biographical information we have of Theophrastus was provided by Diogenes Laërtius' Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, written more than four hundred years after Theophrastus' time, he was a native of Eresos in Lesbos. His given name was Tyrtamus, but he became known by the nickname "Theophrastus," given to him, it is said, by Aristotle to indicate the grace of his conversation. After receiving instruction in philosophy in Lesbos from one Alcippus, he moved to Athens, where he may have studied under Plato, he became friends with Aristotle, when Plato died Theophrastus may have joined Aristotle in his self-imposed exile from Athens. When Aristotle moved to Mytilene on Lesbos in 345/4, it is likely that he did so at the urging of Theophrastus.
It seems that it was on Lesbos that Aristotle and Theophrastus began their research into natural science, with Aristotle studying animals and Theophrastus studying plants. Theophrastus accompanied Aristotle to Macedonia when Aristotle was appointed tutor to Alexander the Great in 343/2. Around 335 BC, Theophrastus moved with Aristotle to Athens, where Aristotle began teaching in the Lyceum. When, after the death of Alexander, anti-Macedonian feeling forced Aristotle to leave Athens, Theophrastus remained behind as head of the Peripatetic school, a position he continued to hold after Aristotle's death in 322/1. Aristotle in his will made him guardian of his children, including Nicomachus with whom he was close. Aristotle bequeathed to him his library and the originals of his works, designated him as his successor at the Lyceum. Eudemus of Rhodes had some claims to this position, Aristoxenus is said to have resented Aristotle's choice. Theophrastus presided over the Peripatetic school for thirty-five years, died at the age of eighty-five according to Diogenes.
He is said to have remarked "we die just when we are beginning to live". Under his guidance the school flourished — there were at one period more than 2000 students, Diogenes affirms, at his death, according to the terms of his will preserved by Diogenes, he bequeathed to it his garden with house and colonnades as a permanent seat of instruction; the comic poet Menander was among his pupils. His popularity was shown in the regard paid to him by Philip and Ptolemy, by the complete failure of a charge of impiety brought against him, he was honored with a public funeral, "the whole population of Athens, honouring him followed him to the grave." He was succeeded as head of the Lyceum by Strato of Lampsacus. From the lists of Diogenes, giving 227 titles, it appears that the activity of Theophrastus extended over the whole field of contemporary knowledge, his writing differed little from Aristotle's treatment of the same themes, though supplementary in details. Like Aristotle, most of his writings are lost works.
Thus Theophrastus, like Aristotle, had composed a second Analytic. He had written books on Topics. In addition, Theophrastus wrote on the Warm and the Cold, on Water, the Sea, on Coagulation and Melting, on various phenomena of organic and spiritual life, on the Soul, on Experience and On Sense Perception. We find mention of monographs of Theophrastus on the early Greek philosophers Anaximenes, Empedocles, Diogenes of Apollonia, which were made use of by Simplicius, he studied general history, as we know from Plutarch's lives of Lycurgus, Aristides, Nicias, Lysander and Demosthenes, which were borrowed from the work
