On the Causes of Plants
E457209
On the Causes of Plants is an ancient botanical treatise by Theophrastus that systematically investigates plant growth, reproduction, and cultivation practices in the classical world.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| On the Causes of Plants canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4628694 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On the Causes of Plants Context triple: [Theophrastus, notableWork, On the Causes of Plants]
-
A.
A Treatise on the Forces which Produce the Organization of Plants
A Treatise on the Forces which Produce the Organization of Plants is a 19th-century scientific work by John W. Draper that explores the physical and chemical principles underlying plant structure and development.
-
B.
Théorie élémentaire de la botanique
Théorie élémentaire de la botanique is a foundational 19th-century botanical treatise that helped establish modern plant taxonomy and morphology.
-
C.
Principles of Descriptive and Physiological Botany
Principles of Descriptive and Physiological Botany is a 19th-century botanical textbook by John Stevens Henslow that systematically outlines plant structure, classification, and function for students of botany.
-
D.
Linnaean sexual system of plants
The Linnaean sexual system of plants is an 18th-century botanical classification method developed by Carl Linnaeus that groups plants based on the number and arrangement of their reproductive organs (stamens and pistils).
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E.
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis is a monumental 19th-century multi-volume botanical work that attempted a comprehensive, natural classification and description of all known plant species.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On the Causes of Plants Target entity description: On the Causes of Plants is an ancient botanical treatise by Theophrastus that systematically investigates plant growth, reproduction, and cultivation practices in the classical world.
-
A.
A Treatise on the Forces which Produce the Organization of Plants
A Treatise on the Forces which Produce the Organization of Plants is a 19th-century scientific work by John W. Draper that explores the physical and chemical principles underlying plant structure and development.
-
B.
Théorie élémentaire de la botanique
Théorie élémentaire de la botanique is a foundational 19th-century botanical treatise that helped establish modern plant taxonomy and morphology.
-
C.
Principles of Descriptive and Physiological Botany
Principles of Descriptive and Physiological Botany is a 19th-century botanical textbook by John Stevens Henslow that systematically outlines plant structure, classification, and function for students of botany.
-
D.
Linnaean sexual system of plants
The Linnaean sexual system of plants is an 18th-century botanical classification method developed by Carl Linnaeus that groups plants based on the number and arrangement of their reproductive organs (stamens and pistils).
-
E.
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis is a monumental 19th-century multi-volume botanical work that attempted a comprehensive, natural classification and description of all known plant species.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
ancient botanical treatise
ⓘ
book ⓘ scientific work ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
explain causes of plant characteristics
ⓘ
explain causes of successful cultivation ⓘ |
| author | Theophrastus ⓘ |
| complements | Enquiry into Plants ⓘ |
| field |
classical studies
ⓘ
history of botany ⓘ history of science ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
effects of climate on plants
ⓘ
effects of cultivation practices on plants ⓘ effects of soil on plants ⓘ effects of water on plants ⓘ environmental factors affecting plants ⓘ plant cultivation ⓘ plant diseases ⓘ plant growth ⓘ plant propagation techniques ⓘ plant reproduction ⓘ |
| genre |
natural history
ⓘ
scientific treatise ⓘ |
| hasPart |
discussion of grafting
ⓘ
discussion of irrigation ⓘ discussion of manuring ⓘ discussion of plant breeding ⓘ discussion of plant diseases and remedies ⓘ discussion of pruning ⓘ discussion of seasonal agricultural practices ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance | one of the earliest systematic works on plant causes and cultivation ⓘ |
| influenced |
later Greco-Roman botanical writing
ⓘ
medieval botanical tradition ⓘ |
| influencedBy | Aristotelian natural philosophy ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
agriculture
ⓘ
botany ⓘ horticulture ⓘ plant physiology ⓘ |
| methodology |
empirical description of cultivation techniques
ⓘ
systematic observation of plants ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | Ancient Greek ⓘ |
| partOf |
Theophrastus’ botanical corpus
ⓘ
linked to:
On Plants (corpus of botanical treatises)
|
| placeOfOrigin |
Ancient Greece
ⓘ
linked to:
Greek Antiquity
|
| relatedWork | Enquiry into Plants ⓘ |
| structure | organized thematically by types of causes and practices ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 4th century BCE ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: On the Causes of Plants Description of subject: On the Causes of Plants is an ancient botanical treatise by Theophrastus that systematically investigates plant growth, reproduction, and cultivation practices in the classical world.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.