ecobites.com

Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

His first gods were flowers and dieties of fertility. Herbs gave food, fibres, ropes, dyes, colourings, perfumes and magic.

They healed his illnesses and wounds. They have been used from the beginning in John Gerard's words, "for meate and medicine". We have available today all the herbs and flowers of other ages.

How far back can we trace the association between humans and the conscious use of herbs and flowers? Probably to Neanderthal man. The analysis of pollen clusters by scientists has shown that a funeral bouquet or a bunch of flowers was placed in the grave of a male who died 60,000 years ago at Shanidar cave in Iraq.

Reporting in Science (Vol 190, p880), Ralph S. Solecki, of the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University, New York, related that seven of eight flower species recovered resembled plants still used today for their herbal and medicinal properties. These included yarrow, cornflower, grape hyacinth, horsetail, hollyhock and St Barnaby's thistle.

The association of flowers with the burials, says Solecki, "furthers our acceptance of the Neanderthals in our line of evolutiion. It suggests that, although the body was archaic, the spirit was modern."

That Stone Age man showed a similar spirit is evidenced by one of the cave paintings at L'Angles-sur-l'Anglin in France, in which a man wears a vivid red vest. It could have been dyed with dandelion, sorrel or Galium (also called Lady's Bedstraw).

Primitive man considered that healing was a gift of the gods, who alone knew the knowledge of plants. Superstition grew up with folk stories attached to every plant. Magic was another aspect of this accumulation of herbal usage. It led to the evolution of the priest and the physician.

In Egypt official schools of herbalists existed as long ago as 3000 BC. The greatest scholar among these was said to be Imhotep, a priest-pyhsician who became the god of medicine.

"In Egypt the men are more skilled in medicine than any of human kind", wrote Homer in the 4th book of the Odyssey. The Egyptians used aloe, dill, lettuce, gentian, mint and poppy among 85 herbs mentioned in medical treatments in a papyrus dating to 1552 BC. This medical document was discovered by Dr George Ebers in 1875.

Egyptians placed flower wreaths, often of mignonette, in mummy tombs and planted gardens in front of the tombs. The head gardener of King Pepe 1 was honoured with a statue when the king's pyramid was built.

On the other side of the fertile crescent, Merodach Baladin, king of Babylon about 720 BC, grew 70 different herbs in his garden. They were mostly fragrant and included thyme, coriander and saffron.

The ancient Greeks, who laid the serious foundation for the study of botany, also had many delightful stories about the origin of herbs and their usage. In their mythology, Asclepius is revered as the first physician and the founder of medicine. He was son of Apollo and learned that arts of healing from Chiron, the king of the Centaurs, in his cave.

Another version has it that Asclepius was abondoned as an infant on Mount Titthion, famus for the medicinal virtue of its plants.

Chiron was the wise tutor a galaxy of heroes, including Jason the Argonaut and Palenus, father of Achilles. He is shown holding a serpent as one of the zodiacal centaurs.

Some herbs, such as yarrow and rue, were thought to have been given by the gods to mankind or to a hero to help cure sickness or wounds and to avoid disaster. Other herbs were thought to be devine, because they were created by the metamorphosis of a god or human into a plant - mint and the bay laurel, for example.

"Adonis gardens" shown on Greek vases of the time depict the offerings of lettuce and fennel to Adonis, usually in pots. Adonis was seen as the spirit of green, growing things, which quickly passes.

The great scholars, writers, poets, philosophers and healers on ancient Greece left a body of thought which was to influence botany, gardening and medicine up to the 18th century.

Theophrastus of Eresus (370-285 BC), a pupil of Plato and Aristotle, wrote about 450 plants in his two works. On the Causes of plants and On the History of Plants. He examined the art of herbal perfume making and planted the first botanical garden. He classified plants into four groups - trees, shrubs, half-shrubs and herbs.

Caius Plinius Secondus, or Pliny the elder, born in AD 23, described individual plants in his Natural History, from his reading and from observation. He thought that basil, when old, degenerated into wild thyme and old cabbage produced rape. Investigating the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79, the curious Pliny was suffocated by fumes.

Claudius galen of pergamum (130-200AD) was a successful physician to two Emperors, Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius. After the fall of Rome, galen's works were preserved by the Arab scholars, and were restored to the mainstream of European thought after the Renaissance.

In Thomas Tusser's famous 1557 book, A Hundreth Good Points of Husbandrie, he includes a list of 21 strewing herbs. Among the more well-known today are basil, lemon balm, sweet fennel, germander, hyssop, lavender, santolina, marjoram, pennyroyal, sage, tansy and winter savory.

Lavender is a herb we inherited from bath-loving Romans, and its name is rooted in the Latin verb to wash, "lavare." By medieval times, they had ceased using it to scent the bath and applied it as a strewing herb to cover odours. It was also quilted into hats and other clothing for an on-the-go masking fragrance.

At the root of aromatic plants of the modern herb garden are the fragrances used to disguise aromas of the great unwashed. It was not until the dawn of the 20th century that bathing became a frequent practice. Let us rejoice in the luxury of bathing every day, knowing we no longer have to douse ourselves in perfume or live amid a pile of wilted herbs to abide each other's company.

Many poems and songs have been written about the sweet violet, the emblem of love, constancy and faithfulness. Shakespeare referred to violets 18 times in his plays and sonnets.
In ancient Greece, the tiny violet was the flower of Aphrodite and of Priapus, the child of Apollo, who was depicted as a gardener carrying a pruning knife. The violet was a flower used in garlands.
The Romans and Persians made violet wine and in the Middle Ages in Europe the first violet of spring caused rejoicing.
There are 600 known kinds of violets. The familiar type has dark green, heart - shaped leaves, with the flowers growing on stems from the roots, deep in colour and in scent. The leaves are mainly used in salads, pottage and conserves and contain vitamin C. Add to mixed green salads, wines and jellies or use the leaves for fritters.
Violet Vinegar is made by steeping the flowers in white wine vinegar. The dried leaves made into tea, or added to other herbal teas, are said to be good for the kidneys.
Violet Conserve: beat the flowers and leaves to a pulp and add three times their weight of honey and mash into a smooth paste.

A WAY TO MAKE SUGAR-PLATE BOTH OF COLOUR AND TASTE OF ANY FLOWER (SIR HUGH PLAT, Delightes for Ladies, 1594)
Take violets, and beat them in a mortar with a little hard sugar; then put into it a sufficient quantitie of Rose-water; then lay your gum arabic to steep in water, and so work it into paste; and so will your paste be both the colour of the violet and of the smell of the violet. In like sort you may work with marigolds, Cowslips or any other flowers.

OYLE OF CAMOMILE (GERVASE MARKHAM, A Way to Get Wealth, 1631)
To make oyle of camomile, take a quart of sallet oyle and put it into a glasse, then take a handful of camomile and bruise it, and put it into the oyle, and let them stand in the same twelve days, onely you must shift it every three days, that is to straine it from the old camomile, and put in as much of new, and that oile is very soveraine for any griefe proceeding from cold causes.

Herb Oils
Herb oils can be made for perfume, as ointment or for salads and cooking. Use organic vegetable or olive oil. The Greeks and Romans used flowers steeped in oil as perfume.
For a scented oil, collect organic fragrant flowers, such as rose petals and leaves of sweet-smelling herbs like lavender or rosemary. Crush to a pulp and add to oil in a tightly closed glass jar.This is placed in sunlight or in sand where the temperature is high. The best proportion is two teaspoons of flowers or sprigs of herbs to each pint of oil. Strain after a fortnight, discard the plants and re-bottle. The herbs perfume and colour the oil.The oil may be used as a skin cleanser, perfume or deodorant.
A herb cooking oil can be made the same way, using combinations of herbs. A quicker way to make herb oil is to add one teaspoon of each herb, say rosemary and oregano, and two colves of garlic, to olive oil in a pan over a low heat. Cook slowly for 10 minutes. Strain through cheesecloth and store for food use in a glass jar.

Fragrant rubbing lotions for tired limbs can be made by infusing herbs in rubbing alcohol. Place sprigs of thyme, lavender, rosemary, mint or lemon balm into a wide mouthed jar. Pour over the alcohol and let stand two weeks, shaking occasionally.
Strain and rebottle.

Herbal Ointments + Salves
In William Turner's time, and until the 19th century, ointment was made out of hog's grease mixed up with herbs and flowers ground to a powder in a mortar. Wax and turpentine were often added.
The best way to make a salve these days is to pound up leaves or roots of the herb needed (such as comfrey, for healing cuts) and mix in non-petroleum jelly.
Another method: mix 6oz coconut oil + 4 oz of the dried herb + 1 oz grated beeswax in a pan over a low heat for 1 1/2 hours. Put off into steralized containers.

Resources:

Books About Herbals

In the spirit of the old herbals and their writers, who seemed to be able to bring bright flowers into blossom from the printed page.

To these ancient writers each plant had its unique attributes in folklore and tradition, some of it passed down in the ancient manuscripts, some from the pioneer use of country people.

They knew the herbs for medicine, for antiseptic perfume, for cooking and for adornment. They were always full of enthusiasm for their gardens and proud of the rare plants flourishing in them.

The 'classic" period of the printed herbals starts with William Turner's A New Herbal, printed in 1551, a first step in the direction of serious botany. It ends probably with Nicholas Cuppeper's The English Physician a century later. In Between the names that stand out belong to John Gerard, a barber-surgeon, and John Parkinson, apothecary to two Kings.

Medieval Herbal Remedies, The Old English Herbarium and Anglo-Saxon Medicine by Anne Van Arsdall, A. Van Arsdall, Gorp Regenmortel Van. This book presents for the first time and up-to-date and easy-to-read translation of a medical reference work that was used in Western Europe from the fifth century well into the renaissance. Listing 185 medicinal plants, the uses for each, and remedies that were compounded using them , the translation will fascinate medievalist, medical historians and the layman alike. Taylor & Francis, Inc. 259pp

Herbals, Their Origins and Evolution, A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670, Agnes Arber, Cambridge University Press, 1912, 253pp

The Art of Botanical Illustrations, Wilfred Blunt, Collins, London, 1950, 304pp

Men with Green Pens, Lives of the great writers on plants in early times. Louise Bush-brown, Dorrance & Co, Philadelphia, 1964, 161pp

The Golden age of Herbs and Herbalists, Rosetta E.Clarkson, Dover Publications Inc, New York 1972, 328pp(first published as Green Enchantment, 1940)

Herbs and Savory Seeds, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Dover Publications Inc, New York 1972, 369pp (first published as Magic Gardens, 1939)

Le Langage des Fleurs

The language of flowers is primarily a literary tradition, based on the language of flowers book in Victorian England, France, and America. Such books are part of the genre of sentimental or gift flower books, which had its roots in the literary almanac, an annual publication that included a calendar. The language of flowers is based on a combination of folklore, literature, mythology, religion.

Two individuals are credited with introducing the language of flowers to Europe - Seigneur Aubry de la Mottraye and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Mottraye's account of his visit to the court of Charles XII of Sweden, in exile in Turkey, was published in 1727, and immediately translated into English. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu accompanied her husband, the ambassador to Turkey, to his post in 1717. Her Turkish Embassy Letters were published in 1763, shortly after her death, and made her famous. The letters described Turkish life, including the language of objects.

The earliest literary record of the phrase "the language of flowers" may be Christopher Smart's line in Jubilate Agno, written during the period 1759 to 1763:

"For the flowers have their angels... For there is a language of flowers. For there is a sound reasoning upon all flowers. For elegant phrases are nothing but flowers."

Flowers in History, Peter Coates, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 1970, 264pp

The Old English Herbals, Elanour Sinclair Rohde, Dover Publications, Inc, New York, 1971, 243pp (first published 1922)

The Story of the Garden, Elanour Sinclair Rohde, The Medici Society, London, 1932, 326pp

Herbals

1525 - Banckes' Herbal; here begynnth a new mater, the whiche sheweth and treateth of ye vertues and proprytes of herbs, the whiche is called an Herball Imprynted by me Rycharde Banckes, dwelling in London.

1526 - The Grete Herbal, which is translated out of ye French into Englysshe. Peter Treveris.

1550 - A Lytel Herball of the properties of herbs newly amended and corrected ... made and gathered by Anthonye Askham, Phisycyon.

1551 - A New Herball, wherein are conteyned the names of Herbs in Greke, Latin, Englysh, Dutch, Frenche, and in the Potecaries and Herbaristes latin ... gathered and made by Wylliam turner, Phisicion unto the Duke of Somersettes Grace, Imprinted at london by Steven Mierdman.

1578 - A Niewe Herball or Historie of plants, by D.rembert Dodoens, translated out of French into English, by Henry Lyte Esquyer ... Imprinted at Antwerpe, by me henry Loe's Bookeprinter, 779pp,870figs.

1584 - Haven of Health ... a handbook for the health of Oxford students, by Thomas Cogan.

1597 - The Garden of Hearth, gathered by the long experience and industry of William langham, Practioner in Physike, London, dated 1579, as printer's error.

1597 - The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. Gathered by John Geararde of London. Master in Chirurgerie. Imprinted at London by John Norton, 1392pp, 1800 figs.

1629 - Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris. A garden of All sorts of Pleasant flowers ... collected by John parkinson Apothecary of London.

1640 - Theatrum Botanicum: The Theatre of Plants or a Herball of a large extent ... collected by the many yeares traveile, industry and experience in this subject, by John parkinson Apothecary of London and the King's Herbarist. Printed by Tho Coates, 1755pp.

1652 - The English Physician Or an Astrologo-physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of this Nation Being a Compleat Method of Physick whereby a man may preserve his Body in health; or cure himself, being sick, for three pence charge, with such things one-ly as grow in England, they being most fit for English bodies.By NCulpeper, Student in Physick and Astrology.

1656 - The Art of Simpling. An introduction to the Knowledge and Gathering of Plants. By W. Coles.

1694 - The Compleat Herbal of Physical Plants. By John Peachey.

1755 - The Family Herbal ... intended for the use of families. By Sir John Hill, MD,FRA of science at Bordeaux.

1756 - The British Herbal. An History of Plants and Trees, Natives of Britain, cultivated for use, or raised for Beauty. By John Hill, MD London, 532 pp and index.