Theophrastus was considered the father of botany in the approximate year of 300 BC. He was an ancient Greek thinker, a student of Aristotle and later, his successor. He wrote two large botanical works on the history of plants and on the causes of plants which were so comprehensive that 1,800 years went by before any newer discovery in botany was made. He established a theory of plant growth and the analysis of plant structure. He also related plants to their natural environment and identified, classified and described 550 different plants.