RE: Herbal characteristics

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have one source for this as a time-capsule, from
William Turner.  Turner published an herbal, and
also a book called "The Names of Herbes", in 1568.
Turner was apparently well-travelled, as he lists
about 140 herbs and where he's seen them growing.
He also lists the foreign plants that grow in
English gardens, and makes note when a plant is
not to be found in England.  Maybe I already had
what I was looking for.....

GC

-----Original Message-----
From: Dana Scott [mailto:dfscott@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 9:15 AM
To: glenclaston@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Voynich@Rand. Org
Subject: Re: Herbal characteristics


Hello GC,

Interesting observation. While origin of plant
specimen in the VMS is
certainly of great interest, there are a number of
factors that come to
mind. Off the top of my head, the points of the
compass so far seem to
range from Finland in the North (f94r  Botrychium
lunaria) down to South
Africa (f93r  Protea), West to the New World and
East to Australia. Of
course, when and where the plants were collected
is significant, since
plants have a tendency to spread over time (very
prolific), no doubt
within their own temperate zone, though they may
have been collected and
moved from their point of origin by human hands. I
am often amazed when
I see certain plants growing in snow covered
ground. I have seen charts
that identifiy the natural locations of plants,
but they are usually
limited by study area (state/province, country). I
have not yet done
this sort of study on a global scale and at this
point want to focus my
attention on trying to identify more plants in the
VMS before heading
down this path, though I do keep it in the back of
my mind. This is a
special study effort and unfortunately, at the
moment, I do not have a
good global source for reference of indigenous
plants.

Regards,
Dana Scott

GC wrote:

> Dana, I wonder if it's possible to extract
another
> piece of information from your identifications
> than we have considered up to now, the latitude
of
> the plants in question.
>
> I've read many herbals where they list plants
that
> will and will not grow in colder northern
> latitudes but are in Pliny, etc.  They do this
to
> suggest substitutes for plants described by the
> ancient writers.  One plant you had identified
as
> the Blue Bell of Scotland got me thinking about
> this, since many cold weather plants won't grow
in
> places like Greece or Italy, and many Greek and
> Italian plants won't grow in Scotland.  These
seem
> like plants the author had handled, and it may
be
> a very way to narrow the field.
>
> Can you say off the top of your head if your
> numerous identifications have a restricted
> latitude or region, or is there somewhere you
can
> recommend where I can gather this information?
>
> GC