originally posted: December 26, 2003 | by chelsie

The ancient Greeks called the date palm, phoinix or phoenix, a name retained by Linnaeus for the generic designation. But it is uncertain why the palm received this name. According to ancient Greek legend, Phoenix was one of five brothers of Europa. When she was kidnapped and carried off by Zeus, Agenor, their father, sent the five brothers out in different directions to find and bring Europa home. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 19, 2003 | by chelsie

Chestnuts (Castanea Miller) are large attractive trees native to the Northern Hemisphere. It is thought that Romans were responsible for introducing the Eurasian chestnut (Castanea sativa) throughout their empire. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 12, 2003 | by chelsie

"Canarie seed, or Canarie grasse after some, hath many small hairy roots, from which arise small strawie stalkes joynted like corne (wheat in Gerard's day), whereupon do grow leaves like those of Barley, which the whole plant doth very well resemble....Canarie seed groweth naturally in Spaine, and also in the Fortunate or Canary Islands....We use it in England...to feed the Canarie Birds." Gerard called the grass, Phalaris, a name dating back to the Greeks and Romans. (The Herbal, 1633 edition) [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 5, 2003 | by chelsie

Indian weed is an Old World member of the Asteraceae. The yellow inflorescences are subtended by involucral bracts covered with sticky glandular trichomes. Indian weed grows along roadsides, in fields, dry clearings, and open hillsides. It frequently comes up in abundance after a fire or when soils have been disturbed. It has been described as obnoxious. Linnaeus named it Sigesbeckia orientalis, the name was not formally published until 1753. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 28, 2003 | by chelsie

Nutmeg is the kernel of the seed from the fruit of Myristica fragrans Houttuyn, a tree native to the Banda Islands (Moluccas). The hard kernel must be grated before use and, although it loses much of its rich warm fragrance and taste, nutmeg is usually sold grated in the U.S. Prior to containerized spices, nutmegs were expensive and sold whole to preserve their aromatic oils. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 21, 2003 | by chelsie

The garden sage (Salvia officinalis Linnaeus) is native to southern Europe from the Iberian Peninsula across into Asia Minor. John Gerard wrote that Agrippa (Agrippa von Nettesheim, 1486-1535) "called it the Holy-herbe" because it helped bring babies to term in women prone to miscarriages. He considered the herb "singular good for the head and braine; it quickeneth the senses and memory, strengthneth the sinewes, restoreth health...." Of course, Gerard highly regarded an alcoholic beverage, "No man needs to doubt of the wholesomeness of Sage Ale...." [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 14, 2003 | by chelsie

Musician-poets in ancient Greece are frequently depicted with a kithara or cithara, a lyre carried on the arm. The words that went with the music were lyrical poems or lyrics. The Romans adopted the lyre calling it a fides; a small lyre was a fidicula, a term they also used for a "torture rack". (One can imagine a melbrooksian history-of-the-world farce especially when one considers that fides also meant trust, faith, and reliance.) [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 7, 2003 | by chelsie

Ancient sailors used seasonal winds, the monsoons, to navigate the Erythraean Sea*. The dry winter winds come out of the northeast; the wet summer winds come from the southwest. Shipping went with the winds. By the time of Alexander the Great (4^th century BCE), traders and merchants from India lived on Dvipa Sukhadhara, the Island of Bliss. Goods like cotton and silk textiles, pearls, cinnamon, black pepper, and fragrant woods came from India to the island. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 31, 2003 | by chelsie

The wormwoods (Artemisia Linnaeus) are bitter aromatic 'herbs' preferring dry, poor soils. They have long symbolized grief and sorrow. The Roman poet Ovid spent the last years of his life (9 to 16 CE) exiled to Tomis on the Black Sea. He wrote of the Pontic wormwood (Artemisia pontica) that grew about the land: "Untilled barren ground the loathsome Wormwood yields, And known it's by the fruit, how bitter are the fields." [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 24, 2003 | by chelsie

Stinking gladwyn or gladdon (Iris foetidissima Linnaeus) is native to Europe and North Africa. The common English name derives from two characteristics of the plant's leaves. John Gerard described the plant, "...Gladdon hath long narrow leaves...of a darke green colour...." [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October17, 2002 | by chelsie

Lovegrass is a common name referring to the 300+ species of Eragrostis. Lovegrasses are found in temperate and tropical zones around the world. The name, lovegrass, first appeared in print in 1702, but it is thought much older and may well date to the Middle Ages. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 10, 2003 | by chelsie

November 5, 1766, Louis Antoine de Bougainville sailed from Nantes aboard the frigate Boudeuse. The French government commissioned Bougainville expedition leader; the objective, circumnavigate the world. His storeship, the Etoile, was still refitting when the Boudeuse left France. [Click here to read more...]