[split] f43v

[-JKP-]

Not bad, JKP. Now, to make sense of what the root means. The shape, size and color all look rather deliberate if you ask me.

Teasel has big roots.

And there are several kinds of teasel. Fuller's teasel (the one with the big heads) was used by weaving factories to card the wool, even after the industrial revolution!

So... one explanation for the big roots (besides them being somewhat naturalistic) is to indicate to the viewer that this is one of the smaller teasels (not Fuller's teasel used in the woollen mills but maybe cut-leaf or another teasel). Many herbals include two, sometimes even three kinds of teasels. Not sure if that's the explanation, but it's a possibility.

If this is meant to be Fuller's teasel, then another possibility is that the root is a big hank of uncarded wool (uncarded wool is lumpy and stringy) and the root isn't just big, as in nature, but is mnemonic.