stop energy waste on herbal research

[-JKP-]

While I'm still not sure that the section with images of plants is a real herbal section, in the same time, I think that those facts that, probably, some exotic plants are depicted here can't be ignored. At least, there some reason must be to depict a pangolin (or armadillo) in the manuscript, a quite not usual animal for European herbal manuscripts.
The following assumption is speculative, without doubt, but pretty attractive, as for me. I think that the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. represents the plant Drosera (known in Europe) and some people agree with this. I know that Dioanea muscipula once was suggested as an identification of the plant on the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. . Of course, it doesn't fit, as a post-Columbian American plant, it is an artifact (along with Sunflower), as it is accepted in relates to the VMs parchment dating. But I don't understand not this. Why the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ? The You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is the best candidate for Dionaea muscipula. Moreover, it could be logical to put the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (insectivorous) on the same folio.

My main point here is not an identification of particular images, my point is that it is rather important to study the plants in the herbal section, than the waste of time, even if the text is not about herbs. There must be strong reasons for those depictions.

Plant You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. doesn't look like Drosera. Drosera tends to have delicate, somewhat small flowers, not at all like the VMS plant. And... there are other plants that have rounded bumps on the leaf margins that resemble You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. much more closely than Drosera (e.g., some of the Kalanchoe and Grindelia plants). In fact, Grindelia, has hooks on the flower-head when it starts going to seed, similar to the VMS plant.

The Kalanchoes (originally from Asia and Africa) are particularly known for their scalloped leaves and some of them even have tiny round "baby" leaves all along the edges of the leaf margins.


So I don't think You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is a good candidate for Drosera, but I agree that You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. looks like Drosera. Drosera has been on the top of my list of possible IDs for 56r since the first time I saw it but I think there is one additional possibility for 56r...

Many of the old herbal manuscripts have a drawing of a mountain, sometimes with a miner prospecting for minerals, and on that mountain is frequently shown a plant with a curled head similar to 56r. Unfortunately, the plant is always drawn very small and is never labeled, so I haven't been able to figure out what species it represents. It's not drawn like heliotrope or one of the Boraginaea, or other plants with curled flower stems, it looks like Drosera, but I can't figure out why it would always be associated with the mountain and minerals. Drosera tends to like boggy places, not cliffy ones.