Let's continue this thread. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is another folio from my "focal set" of botanical folios.
No wide consensus in identifications exists. Th. Petersen and the Finnish biologist are silent about this. Sherwood thinks this to be Helleborus foetidus, and Steve D - Aconitum napellus.
The assumption of Helleborus foetidus does apparently come from the shape of the leaves as depicted in the VMS. English "Bear's foot" or German "Baerenfuss" are folk names of Helleborus foetidus.
Now let's apply the "heads & tails" approach for the sake of testing. Suppose this is "Helleborus foetidus", and the "heads" (the tops) thus fit well - the folk name corresponds to that.
What about the "tails" - the root? The root looks like a scorpion's tail. Is there any relation between helleborus foetidus and scorpions? It turns out that there is!
Click the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. to find out what "Myth in Indo-European Antiquity" (University of California Press, 1974) has to say on the subject. Looks like the scorpion is not directly attached to Helleborus foetidus specifically by Pliny, but it somewhat hangs around hellebore in general.
And again Plinius Maior!
So the "heads and tails" begins to get more specific. The guy used tops mnemonics for the folk names, and roots mnemonics sourced from Pliny the Elder for Latin names.
Still a hypothesis, of course, based on just two folios. To be tested further.
No wide consensus in identifications exists. Th. Petersen and the Finnish biologist are silent about this. Sherwood thinks this to be Helleborus foetidus, and Steve D - Aconitum napellus.
The assumption of Helleborus foetidus does apparently come from the shape of the leaves as depicted in the VMS. English "Bear's foot" or German "Baerenfuss" are folk names of Helleborus foetidus.
Now let's apply the "heads & tails" approach for the sake of testing. Suppose this is "Helleborus foetidus", and the "heads" (the tops) thus fit well - the folk name corresponds to that.
What about the "tails" - the root? The root looks like a scorpion's tail. Is there any relation between helleborus foetidus and scorpions? It turns out that there is!
Click the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. to find out what "Myth in Indo-European Antiquity" (University of California Press, 1974) has to say on the subject. Looks like the scorpion is not directly attached to Helleborus foetidus specifically by Pliny, but it somewhat hangs around hellebore in general.
And again Plinius Maior!
So the "heads and tails" begins to get more specific. The guy used tops mnemonics for the folk names, and roots mnemonics sourced from Pliny the Elder for Latin names.
Still a hypothesis, of course, based on just two folios. To be tested further.