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Toxic and potentially carcinogenic, Petasites
hybridus was used in the Middle-ages to fight the plague. Like
Coltsfoot (f8r) this plant is drawn in the VMS without its very large
leaves. This find was suggested by a drawing in the Witchcraft Medicine book
(Muller-Eberling, Ratsch, Storl) . Unfortunately, most of the
other correlations in the VMS to drawings in this book have already been
identified. But I am very pleased with this match. The characteristics of the
drawing in the VMS seemed to suggest a weed of some type and I had already spent
quite a bit of time trying to identify this plant. The author of the VMS has
purposefully left out the prominent leaves, perhaps as a means of concealment by
not divulging all the pertinent information or maybe the leaves were just not of
great interest/importance.
Petasites hybridus: (butterbur, butterfly dock,
butter-dock, bog rhubarb, flapperdock, umbrella leaves)
Photo:
Illustration:
Description:
Mercury: (hat supposedly made from Butterbur leaf?)
Regards,
Dana Scott
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