Flora Unveiled

244 i Flora Unveiled

universal understanding of nature and that only the limitations of time had prevented
him from writing it all down.
In 36 bce, Nicolaus, who had earned a reputation as an excellent teacher, had the good
fortune to meet and impress Cleopatra, who was on her way to meet Antony during the
prolonged Parthian War.^33 She hired him to tutor her twins by Antony— which afforded
him access to the elite of Alexandrian society. After Cleopatra’s death in 30 bce, Nicolaus
entered the service of Herod I (Herod the Great), the Roman client king of Judea. A skilled
rhetorician, Nicolaus accompanied Herod abroad on numerous occasions and was a favor-
ite with Emperor Augustus of Rome. He frequently sent Augustus gifts of dates, prompt-
ing Augustus to name a variety of date after him (nicolai). He also undertook many delicate
missions on Herod’s behalf and was successful at mediating conflicts.^34
Nicolaus’s memory was cherished as late as the seventh century, and his philosophical
writings were among the first to be translated into Semitic tongues when Greek learning
gained the ascendancy in the East.
Much of De Plantis is taken up with such metaphysical questions as whether plants are
living or inanimate, whether they have souls, and whether they experience desires and
feelings. But he also expresses the wish to “reach some conclusion” about the question of
plant sex:

Now Anaxagoras and Empedocles say that [plants] are influenced by desire; they also

assert that they have sensation and feel sadness, deducing this from the fall of their

leaves; while Empedocles held the opinion that sex has a place in their composition.

Plato indeed declares that they feel desire only on account of their compelling need of

nutriment. If this be granted, it will follow that they also feel joy and sadness and have

sensation. I should also like to reach some conclusion as to whether they are refreshed

by sleep and wake up again, and also whether they breathe, and whether they have sex

and the mingling of the sexes or not.^35

Nicolaus identifies the question of plant sex as “the most important and appropriate sub-
ject of inquiry” in all of plant biology:

The most important and appropriate subject of inquiry which arises in this science is

that proposed by Empedocles, namely whether female and male sex is found in plants,

or whether there is a combination of the two sexes.

Nicolaus begins his analysis of plant sex by paraphrasing Aristotle’s dictum that males
generate “in another,” while females generate “from another.” However, this is “not found
to be the case in plants,” he states, because:

in a particular species the produce of the male plant will be rougher, harder and stiffer,

while the female will be weaker but more productive.

This explanation (from the English translation of the Greek retranslation) seems to be a
non sequitur, indicative of an omission or mistranslation of the original text. He seems to