Re: VMS -- Botany f25v ("dragon" page)...?

[Dana Scott <dfscott@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nick,
   I forwarded you a copy of the e-Mail that I sent out last year concerning
the little dragon in f25v which I believe is most likely a Basilisk. I do not
think the plant is mandrake; however, it may indeed be a poisonous plant. This
is actually a rather difficult plant to identify since there are so many
possible matches. I keep thinking about it every now and then and will no doubt
get back to investigating it again sometime this year.

Regards,
Dana Scott

Nick Pelling wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> Am I missing the point, or does the "dragon" on f25v probably represent a
> dog (admittedly a particularly badly-drawn one) pulling up a mandrake root
> (roughly as per the medieval myth)?
>
> Looking at the Copyflo print of the page, I can just about make out some
> structural similarities with mandrake - hairy roots, big & generally
> pointed leaves, etc - but the low quality makes me acutely uncomfortable
> about making a positive identification beyond that. :-/
>
> I think that this might be an interesting test case of whether the VMS
> botany was empiric or traditionalist, as mandrake's "human-like" roots were
> often heavily stylised in illustrations, which doesn't appear to be the
> case here at all.
>
> Comments?
>
> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....