originally posted: September 5, 2003 | by chelsie

Women have pretty much always been considered responsible for clothing the members of the family, a task both tedious and drawn out. Plant fibers--flax and nettle--or animal hair--wool and horsehair--had to be cleaned, combed, spun, woven, dyed, and then sewn into shirts, pants, dresses, cloaks, and jackets. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 29, 2003 | by chelsie

In Old High German, an eight-legged creature was called a spinna and comparably, in Anglo-Saxon, it was a spinther, both names a reference to an "agent that spins". By Middle English, the 'n' had been dropped and the creature was a spithre or spither. By modern English, the word had become spider. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 22, 2003 | by chelsie

In 1597, John Gerard wrote "They are commonly called Bolbonac...a barbarous name: we had rather call it...Viola latifolia, and Viola lunaris, or as it pleaseth most Herbarists, Viola peregrina...." By the late Renaissance, herbarists (or as we would call them, botanists) were sorting plants into obvious relationships. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 15, 2003 | by chelsie

According to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, the common name, breadfruit, first appeared in print in the English language in 1697. In most European languages, the fruit is called by names which have the same meaning: in Dutch, broodvrucht; in French, fruit a pain; in Portuguese, fruta pao, and in Spanish, fruta de pan. It is said when the fruit is roasted and pulled from the coals, it looks like a loaf of bread. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 8, 2003 | by chelsie

Common groundsel (Senecio vulgaris Linnaeus) is an invasive species native to Eurasia. In A Modern Herbal (1931), Mrs. Grieve wrote, "The name Groundsel is of old origin, being derived from the Anglo-Saxon groundeswelge, meaning literally, 'ground swallower', referring to the rapid way the weed spreads." [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 1, 2003 | by chelsie

Astragalus is a cosmopolitan genus estimated to contain 1000 to 1500 species worldwide. Generally known as the milkvetches, these legumes have members which provide good cattle and sheep forage, resinous gums like tragacanth used in medicine, and others like the locoweeds have notorious toxins. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: July 25, 2003 | by chelsie

Linnaeus was almost 23 when Antonio Vallisnieri died. In another 23 years (1753), he would publish Species Plantarum. Linnaeus honored Vallisnieri (Vallisneri) naming an aquatic plant after him. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: July 18, 2003 | by chelsie

Epidemics, sudden outbreaks of diseases, have hit populations since humans began living in close proximity. The most infamous of the epidemics were the cyclic plagues or "Black Death" that hit during the Middle Ages starting around 1346. Looking back, we attribute the causes to Yersinia pestis, a plague which has three forms--pneumonic, septicemic, and bubonic--smallpox, influenza, gonorrhea, and tuberculosis. Estimates guess that anywhere from twenty-five to forty percent of the populations were killed with any one plague. ("A Brief History of Infectious Disease--Epidemics", Bayer Pharmaceutical Division) [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: July 11, 2003 | by chelsie

The ancient Greeks reviled basil (Ocimum basilicum Linnaeus), a plant they called okimon; it represented hatred, misfortune, and poverty. By the final years of the Roman civilization, the plant was called basilicum or regula and associated with kings or royalty. During the Middle Ages, basil was associated with a fantastical creature of Greek legend--the basilisk. (Century Unabridged Dictionary, 1889) [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: July 4, 2003 | by chelsie

Specimens--pressed, dried, and mounted on sheets of paper--are the only way of authenticating and providing a permanent record of plant species. The herbarium sheet contains the collector's name, the date, the location of the plant, and any other details that might be important. The herbarium specimen allows the tracking of variation in species, provides clues to changes in the environment, and verifies invasions and extinctions. Herbarium specimens are a legacy. [Click here to read more...]