The Voynich Ninja

[attachment=10327]

As remarked several times already by others, this full plant drawing is rather unique as it shows just three words.

The last word  alag = alayae or alaye ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , first comment) 
comes close to today's russian алыи ("alyy"), which means "Scarlet" (the desease).

Most slavic languages are using somehow adapted `scarlet´ in vocabulary, but some, like Russian, have own descriptions for it which may be old enough to appear in VMS.
I have reason to assume the three vords mean "effective against scarlet".

Medieval herbal treatment suggestions were thyme, sage and yellow avens and surely some more. 

This plant is surely not thyme or sage.
But yellow avens, Geum urbanum or maybe Geum aleppicum, are quite good-looking here, enough images at the internet. Both are often plagued by gall wasps, which produce thickened root stems.

Creeping avens (Geum reptans) produces networking roots with several knots, but they look still different from drawing. 
Yes, "these roots": the pictured roots are not as nice and fitting as Filipendula, but that plant is not on f65v.

The draftsman made 2 mistakes: outer blossom leafs, the "spikes", should be rotated a bit, they are not exactly behind an inner blossom leaf when their number is not higher than 5.
Otherwise I understood that the outer leafs are always limited to 5, while inner leafs may be more than 5. Drawing shows some 6+6 combinations.

Following is creeping avens, the left blossom is still flowering, all other began fruiting.

So this is my suggestion for 65r.

[font=Arial][attachment=10329][/font]

There seems to be something weird with the leaves of f65r.

[attachment=11387] 

Most plants in the VMS have leaves arranged in opposite pairs along a stem or branch, with either a single full-size leaf at the tip or a full-size pair.  (Few if any have a branch or stem ending with a few smaller leaves and an apical leaf bud, as many real plants do.)

Apparently the idea of whoever devised the drawing of the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. plant was to follow that model.  And indeed there is one pair of leaves that fits that model: namely, the third one from the top along the left margin. The branch arrives at that pair in the NE diretion, makes a sharp 90° turn to NW at that point, then turns back to NE with a smooth curve.  One leaf of the pair is drawn in front of the branch,the other behind it.  Each of these two leaves is symmetrical with (in this case) four lobes on each side and one at the tip.  The leaves do not seem to have stalks, but attach dierctly to the branch at a single point. 

The unpaired leaves at the branch tips look the same, although some may have five lobes on each side, instead of four.

However, every leaf pair other than that one seems to have been mashed into a single mis-shaped monster leaf that grows sideways out from the branch like a broad two-sided battle-ax.  Measured on the page, branches are only 2-3 mm wide, but the base of these "siamese" leaves are ~10 mm wide.

How could this happen?  Perhaps the scribe misunderstood the Author's sketch, or the alchemical herbal he was supposed to copy the leaves from?

All the best, --jorge

It would not be the first time that the artist mis-interpreted a source drawing. The style shows some resemblance to f95v2 which is also by Hand 3. However, compared to many other 'weirdos' in the VM, I consider this a fairly realistic plant. Some Rosaceae like You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. have stipules that surround the stem.

(03-09-2025, 07:41 PM)Bernd Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Some Rosaceae like You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. have stipules that surround the stem.

Could be... But in that example the stipule is very different from the main leaves (which are composite with well-separated lobes).  Whereas on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. the "monster leaves" look just like pairs of main leaves.

Also, on that example the stipule is attached transversally, around the stem (like the smaller leaf of f8r); whereas on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. the "monster leaves" are attached along it.

All the best, --jorge