Phytognomonica

PHYTOGNOMONICS

...with swellings like knots of nerves, and rigid spines; it will have tiny leaves, hairy, jagged, and angular, in which the veins stand out prominently. Its flowers will be meager and of a faded color, its roots woody and short, and its fruit small—wood-like inside and harsh in taste. It is not meant for eating, but possesses remarkable medicinal powers and is of the most celebrated use; to the taste, it is hot and dry. But if this same plant is sown in rich soil, on level ground, where a mild climate and the diligence of a gardener smile upon it—by the immortal Gods, how great a transformation it undergoes over a little time! For, its wildness tamed by cultivation, it strips off its hairiness and woodland habit; it becomes gentle and lives more "humanely." From a skinny stalk, it will grow succulent and bloom with a cheerful beauty; from short it becomes tall, from twisted it becomes straight. The spines will retract, the knots vanish, and the "skin" Referring to the bark or epidermis of the plant. will turn out bright and smooth. Round leaves, or at least leaves with blunt angles, will weigh down the branches, and "flesh" The soft pulp or parenchyma of the plant. will overspread the veins and nerves so that they become soft. The flowers shine with a deeper color, and the fruit possesses a renewed fertility and perennial abundance—yet it will have a watery and faint taste, with its medicinal powers exhausted. In the end, it stands so far from its original form that it scarcely reflects any of its former outlines. Likewise, if you take a plant that is a foster-child of a cold and wet place, possessing a cold and humid quality, and move it to squalid, rough, and scorching locations where it is deprived of the gardener's care and stripped of its urban habit, you will see it grow wild. As its borrowed humidity and coldness wither away, it will lean toward a drier and hotter temperament.

The transformation of one plant into another.

But this is seen more clearly and perceptively in plants than in humans: how they depart from their own form and pass from their natural kinship into a foreign one, abandoning their qualities along with their forms and assuming new ones. Wheat turns into darnel original: "lolium"; a weed common in grain fields. and flax disappears when the earth is flooded or sown during constant rains. Also, crushed cattail original: "typha". passes into wheat, and basil original: "ocium". into wild thyme, and others which are reported more fully in their proper places. This shines forth even more notably in those plants which adopt a nature and form for themselves from two parents; for they represent the form and character of both with a rival face. This can be seen in the garlic-leek scordoprasumA hybrid plant described by ancients as having the qualities of both garlic (skoron) and leek (prason)., which has the powers and form of both garlic and leek, and in zeopyrumA hybrid of spelt (zea) and wheat (pyros)., and others. Therefore, when the form of the body is changed, the "soul" Della Porta uses "anima" to refer to the internal vital force or medicinal essence of the plant. of the plant is also changed; when the powers are changed, the stature is changed. The power of the soul responds to the parts of the body, so that they become, in turn, the causes of the powers and the form. Never has a plant been seen that reflected the form of one thing but the gifts of another.

Different forms, different powers.

Myrtle does not have the powers of aloe, nor does aloe have those of southernwood original: "abrotonum"; a flowering plant in the wormwood family.. It follows by necessity that such powers suit such a form.

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THAT THE PLANT HAS MUCH

SIMILARITY WITH THE HUMAN. Chapter II.

A large ornamental letter 'E' showing a person sitting among swirling vines and leaves, visually reinforcing the connection between humans and nature.

Theophrastus, Book 1, Chapter 2.

If perhaps anyone feared that we have not rightly compared plants to humans—as we do with other animals—and thus relied on weak arguments, he will show himself to be poorly versed in the readings of the ancients. They wrote that a great commonality exists between plants and humans, and that they differ in few respects. A plant consists of almost the same members as an animal. Theophrastus A Greek philosopher and the "father of botany," a primary source for Della Porta., about to write his Inquiry into Plants, stated that these parts are in all of them; and just as in the bodies of animals there are specific duties for each member, so too in the parts of plants there are specific tasks. Nature composed feet for walking and arms for embracing; the ears are able to do nothing that belongs to the eyes, nor the eyes what belongs to the ears, nor is the faculty of procreation given to the hands. She also shaped these types of plants, for whom the same mother and parent first laid down the roots like certain foundations, so that the plant might stand upon them as if on feet. Then she placed the trunk above, like a certain stature and habit of the body; soon she spreads out the branches, like arms, and then drew forth the stalks and shoots, like hands. There is wood in the trunk, just as there are bones in the flesh. Bone does not provide a specific action or function for the body, but exists only for this use: as stakes in a net, so is the wood in the bark, providing solidity and strength against the storms of the winds, and to sustain the weight of the branches.