F25v - tentative identification of an animal / plant hybrid

[Anton]

While draco grows at least on Canaries, fragrans is an equatorial plant. That's a bit problematic, unless maybe the plant was known through ancient egyptians who descended to the land of Punt.

[Koen G]

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Maybe the little dragon is smelling the plant.

[Anton]

It is interesting to note that You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is the only (or, at least, one of the very few - it's hard to tell at a glance) botanical folio that does not contain any label vords. The plot at voynichese.com shows three labels there - but it is only because Job considers single glyphs such as r or s as labels too.

What does that mean? Probably that this plant does not have any practical association with the topics considered in other portions of the MS - such as astrology or recipe - in other words that this is a rare plant not much used in common practice. The PPN poeeaiin is a unique vord.

[-JKP-]

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Maybe the little dragon is smelling the plant.

Maybe it is. It's something worth keeping in mind.

[-JKP-]

I dug through my files for some relatives of Dracaena fragrans (some that have the same form) and found Dracaena afromontana which lives in the cooler parts of subtropical/tropical Africa[i] (Ethiopia and Tanzania)[/i]. By cooler, I mean it's a mountain plant. It's African, but prefers the higher elevations (hence its name).

There's one from the Ivory coast but the leaves are more discrete and have lots of yellow spots (wrong shape for 25r).

[Searcher]

The earliest illustration that I found for now is You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

[Anton]

Thx Searcher. The title of the book is "history of rare plants". Maybe somebody fluent in Latin could please read into this and see what the book tells about the history of Dracaena, when it became known in Europe?

[-JKP-]

In Madagascar (which was on some of the seafaring routes), You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. was believed to cure malaria.

---

Thx Searcher. The title of the book is "history of rare plants". Maybe somebody fluent in Latin could please read into this and see what the book tells about the history of Dracaena, when it became known in Europe?

My Latin is very limited, so someone good at Latin should probably read it, but it mostly describes the trees' form, bark, number of branches, sap (reason for the "dragon" name), and uses. If I'm reading it correctly, it mentions it was rare in Europe.