SC - Re: HERB - Tobacco and other Smoking Herbs

[Cindy Renfrow]

Just off the top of my head, might this plant be Tussilago farfara, aka
Coltsfoot (or Coughwort)?

Gerard says of this plant:
"The fume of the dried leaues taken through a funnell or tunnell, burned
vpon coles, effectually helpeth those that are troubled with the shortnesse
of breath, and fetch their winde thicke and often, and breaketh without
perill the impostumes of the brest."

HTH,


Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing
Recipes"
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/



>At 11:50 AM -0500 1/19/99, Christine A Seelye-King wrote:
>>Ok, here's a question for the Herb List, anyone heard of "Tussilinge"?
>
>Which was in response to Jran-Baptiste de Foix's SCA-Cooks comment:
>>> I once got to smoke a herb called "Tussilinge" the person who let me
>>> smoke it says the Romans smoke it. and this person has done a
>>>master's thesis in history about herbal uses in the Antiquity.
>
>Just on a whim, I've looked up some of the etymology of "tussilinge."
>No web search results in any more than the Floreligium
>commentary on it.
>
>Based on the middle english word "tussillen" and the "linge" of
>the name, it could be, on my undereducated guess, Heather or
>Calluna vulgaris. Looking up the words "touse," "ling," and
>"tussillen" and perhaps "zirzuson" in a real dictionary might
>yield better results.
>
>I cannot, however, find any information in my work library that
>suggests that the Heather plant was smoked, only that it is an Old
>World plant. I'll double-check in Gerard if I can find it when
>I go home tonight, but it could just be a dead end. If you're
>interested in looking it up yourself, try also looking for "hather"
>which was a more common spelling in period (AFAIR) or under
>"Eurasian heath." You may want to look under grasses if you have
>a choice.
>
>Keep in mind that I'm taking a big WAG on this. I have no idea what
>tussilinge is. I'm just curious if I can find any references to
>it in my book collection and thought I'd share where I'm going
>to look. Isn't the german word for "heather" "heide?"
>
>Don't you just love a good puzzle?
>
>
>
>Jasmine de Cordoba, Midrealm
>jasmine at infoengine.com or gwalli at infoengine.com


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