VMS -- Botany (f51r) Henbane

[Dana Scott <dfscott@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here is a copy of the Henbane plant drawing (artist?) referenced by
Dioscorides (fol. 37r) which I saw in a book at the Strybing Arboretum
and Botanical Garden bookstore in San Francisco that influenced and
finally clinched my decision to label the VMS herbal drawing in f51r as
Hyoscyamus niger.

"Ps.-Apuleius, Dioscorides, Herbals (extracts);
De virtutibus bestiarum in arte medicinae,
in Latin and English England, Bury St. Edmunds;
11th century, late"

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/jpegs/bodl/1000/17461201.jpg

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/mss/bodl/130.htm

Dioscorides at work in the field:
http://armypharmacy.org/images/thom/hist08.htm

Dioscorides Portrait:
http://orvostortenet.0catch.com/eng/dioscor.html

Dioscorides classified plants as "as aromatic, culinary, and medicinal".
I wonder how the plants
in the VMS were classified (perhaps toxic, culinary, and medicinal)?

Theophrastus and Dioscorides:
http://www.parosweb.com/PAROS-LIFE/backissues/35/story6.html

Strybing Arboretum and Botanical Garden Bookstore:
http://www.strybing.org/Bookstore/index.htm


Regards,
Dana Scott