HERB - Re: Brother Cadfael's Herb Garden

[Kathleen Keeler]

> Lady Diana wrote:
>
>  It's *very* pretty--I've been drooling over it since it came out, but
>      decided it wasn't heavy enough on documentation to justify the $30.00 price
>      tag.
>

Brother Cadfael's Garden is a modern book about Period herbalism (as
written in the Brother Cadfael mysteries).  I think its about the only
such book out there (in print): one you could recommend to people
interested in learning about  Medieval herbalism but not interested in
being herbalists.

Otherwise we have technical modern books, or Period herbals.  Summaries
of the Medieval herbalism are few and far between.

I hope it stays in print a long time, since it is my answer to "what
book should I start with?"

As far as documentation, yes, it combines various Period sources into
the descriptions of the plants.  Alas, that's pretty universal:  I don't
know a carefully referenced compilation of Period uses of herbs (that's
among the many things on my list for when I step down as territorial
Baroness).

In its defense, the names are modern and accurate (British):  the
authors knew their plants, their history and their herbalism--a rare
combination.  The only problem with the names is they are organized by
common names (with no index) and the common names are British, some of
them unfamiliar to Americans.

I have Period herbals that might have been used to answer Sheepstealer's
questions, but the scientific names of Period plants were all added
after the Middle Ages by people trying to guess what plant was
indicated.  And most of those appended plant lists are old enough that
the nomenclature has changed some.  So those aren't easy sources.
Rushes are among the groups where identification to species is often
lousy--poorly studied.  I wanted to ask whether you have the common
bulrush (_Scirpus lacustris_) in the US, Sheepstealer.  None of my US
floras list it.   soft rush, _Juncus effusus_ is all over the eastern
US, apparently native (circumboreal I guess), according to those same
sources.

Agnes
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