HERB - Assorted sources/topics

[Roos cc]

Clair writes:
>>I've gotten sidetracked into plants used in 
meditation gardens and spiritual retreat gardens and 
am currently reading some books on plants and mental
healing (gardening for the spirit?)<<

Please tell me something about this. Contemporary
or traditional? I recently read a small snippet on
Persian and Western medieval fountains that was
interesting and I'd like to know more.

Mistress Christianna writes:
>>I am interested in the history of herbals, and have 
taught a class (introductory) on the topic.<<

Have you seen Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, *The Old English
Herbals" (1922; Rpt. New York: Dover, 1971)?
It gives a colorful overview  beginning with the
Anglo-Saxons and ending with late 17th century
works. The Bibliography of herbals is very helpful.

A promising seed catalog is Chiltern Seeds, Boretree 
Stile, Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 7PB England
(email 101344.1340 at compuserve.com)
It's primarily for British horticulturalists, but has
a good many things that I haven't seen in the trade here,
including the wild species/form of many British
natives. 

I have the Dover reprint of the 1633 Thomas Johnson
edition of Gerard (a single massive volume) if anyone
wants me to look something up.

Has anyone gone into history of medicine or history
of pharmacology and found sources that do serious
analytic work on the maladies the herbs are supposed
to treat? Would you all be interested in pondering
specific questions on this? Is anyone interested in
medieval medical theory--humors, etc.?

Alysoun
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