Narcissus (plant)
Early

The genus Narcissus was well known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. In Greek literature Theophrastus and Dioscorides described νάρκισσος, probably referring to N. poeticus, although the exact species mentioned in classical literature cannot be accurately established. Pliny the Elder later introduced the Latin form narcissus. These early writers were as much interested in the plant's possible medicinal properties as they were in its botanical features and their accounts remained influential until at least the Renaissance (see also Antiquity). Mediaeval and Renaissance writers include Albert Magnus and William Turner, but it remained to Linnaeus to formally describe and name Narcissus as a genus in his Species Plantarum (1753) at which time there were six known species.
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