08-08-2017, 10:26 PM
I spent a lot of years thinking about these plants...
Are they food plants?
Are they seed plants?
Are they ornamental plants (I'm pretty sure the answer to that is no)?
Are they poisonous plants? In particular, since this is a book with a lot of women, are they abortifacient, aphrodisiac, and birth control plants?
Are they garnish plants (not likely)?
Are they local plants?
Are they imported plants?
They are clearly not the usual forms of garden vegetables, other than those which were valued for medicinal properties (plants like rhubarb, mustard, and beets are examples of plants that are eaten but which are also included in medieval compendia as medicinal plants).
After considering all of these possibilities (and others) for a very long time, I had to let go of the intriguing idea that they might be poisonous or female-related plants.
I think they are probably medicinal plants, like so many other herbal compendiums (with a sigh, I had to let go of many of my magical-plant and midwife-related plant ideas). The VMS includes viola, vallarsia, tragapogon, possibly hedera helix, possibly cuscuta, knapweed, possibly pulmonaria, possibly teasel... all of which are conventional medicinal plants and don't really fit (if taken together as a group) into any of the other categories.
If 34v is asparagus (I'm still not insisting on this, I just think it should be high on the list), then it too fits into the medicinal-plant category.
Are they food plants?
Are they seed plants?
Are they ornamental plants (I'm pretty sure the answer to that is no)?
Are they poisonous plants? In particular, since this is a book with a lot of women, are they abortifacient, aphrodisiac, and birth control plants?
Are they garnish plants (not likely)?
Are they local plants?
Are they imported plants?
They are clearly not the usual forms of garden vegetables, other than those which were valued for medicinal properties (plants like rhubarb, mustard, and beets are examples of plants that are eaten but which are also included in medieval compendia as medicinal plants).
After considering all of these possibilities (and others) for a very long time, I had to let go of the intriguing idea that they might be poisonous or female-related plants.
I think they are probably medicinal plants, like so many other herbal compendiums (with a sigh, I had to let go of many of my magical-plant and midwife-related plant ideas). The VMS includes viola, vallarsia, tragapogon, possibly hedera helix, possibly cuscuta, knapweed, possibly pulmonaria, possibly teasel... all of which are conventional medicinal plants and don't really fit (if taken together as a group) into any of the other categories.
If 34v is asparagus (I'm still not insisting on this, I just think it should be high on the list), then it too fits into the medicinal-plant category.