Plant 52r

[arca_libraria]

Back when I used to hope that understanding the VMS plant section might be as simple as matching a plant to an illustration in another herbal, I always used to think that the bottom part of that plant reminded me of the illustrations of coral in some of the later medieval herbals. The unusual shape, the opacity of the reddish pigment, and the limited tapering of the individual limbs of the root all seemed to make coral a moderately plausible candidate. Of course, the top half of the plant is nothing like a red coral, but for those of you seeing something crown-shaped, do you think that it is possible that the illustration is a mnemonic referring to corallus/coronam or even (heavens forbid!) a pun?

Some coral illustrations attached for reference.