Women as allegory for the life force of plants - or just a plant biology lesson?

[Koen G]

We speak about "nymphs", "ladies" etc out of convenience, but it is generally agreed that there are a few dozen men. I think between 50 and 60 in the whole manuscript, but this is just from memory. Does someone recall if we counted this once?

Anyway, apart from the obvious men like the ones you selected, many of the "women" are also androgynous or otherwise problematic. For example, on several ones both breasts have been added later in darker ink. My personal suspicion is that the VM images were copied from a source that did not differentiate well between the male and female body, and there was some doubt by the copyist. Bu that's speculation. It is true that such styles exist - I remember bibles where it's almost impossible to tell Adam from Eve. Female breasts and male pectorals look very similar then, and the genitals are either not drawn or indicated with somehting that looks like some awkward pubic hair.

I also think you're right about the beards, and that again there may be more beards than we'd suspect. Apparently only the outlines of facial hair are drawn, which makes it hard to recognize.