Phytognomonica

BOOK TWO OF PHYTOGNOMONICS

...not only through their similarities to human limbs, which they heal, but also to diseases. This occurs not only through their parts—such as the root, trunk, foliage, flower, fruit, and seed—but also through their actions and habits, such as whether they retain or shed their leaves, their offspring, their number, their beauty, or their deformity; and likewise, they mirror the habits and actions of animals. Even the qualities of stars, metals, gems, and stones are found within them. First, we shall review those that bear a resemblance to the limbs of the human body, including not just the primary parts but even the smaller components of those parts.

The humors of plants, when consumed as food, increase those same humors in the body; for instance, phlegmatic plants increase phlegm original: "pituita," one of the four bodily humors, associated with coldness and moisture, and bilious plants increase bile. When these same plants are received as medicines, they have a designated power to draw out those same fluids. Orache original: "atriplex", cumin, and bishop’s weed original: "ammi" turn yellow or leaden in their juice; with continuous eating and use, they increase bile and induce "the royal disease" jaundice and paleness. Yet these same plants—orache, cumin, and the like—by their own nature expel yellow bile and cure jaundice.

The dark colors of plants increase "choler" black bile to such an extent that men appear demonic—such as cabbage original: "brassica", thyme, poppy, and henbane original: "hyoscyamus"—and they induce diseases born of black bile. However, the juices of these same herbs, such as cabbage, dodder of thyme original: "epithymus", black hellebore, and mandrake, work to expel those humors. White-flowered plants, such as basil original: "ocymum", white hellebore, elder, and flax-leaved daphne original: "daphnoides", induce and draw out white phlegm. Those that drip with blood-red juice purge the blood, such as the rose, centaury, and rhubarb. The mulberry, pomegranate, rock-rose original: "cisthus", and knotgrass original: "polygonon" suppress the menses and are used for wounds.

Thus, plants of mixed color remove mixed humors; for example, feverfew original: "parthenium", with its yellow flower surrounded by white, draws out both phlegm and bile. Red cassia, with its blackish pulp, purges the blood of scorched bile, or yellow bile that has degenerated into black. Lettuce, sow-thistle, and spurge original: "tithymalus" are "milky"; they provoke the flow of milk and increase the seed of generation. Hairy plants, such as maidenhair fern original: "adiantum", wall-rue, and the maidenhair of Apuleius, are effective against mange original: "alopecia," or hair loss. Fleshy, woody, and fibrous plants, such as bulbs, southernwood, and poterium, increase and heal the flesh, bones, and nerves.

Those plants that resemble external limbs, such as orchids original: "orchides" which display the appearance of testicles, are incentives for love. Hermodactyls literally "fingers of Hermes," likely meadow saffron, which are finger-shaped, heal the fingers. Those that resemble internal organs are effective for the heart, such as the citron, mountain nard, and wolfsbane original: "antitora", and they restore failing senses. For the spleen, there is spleenwort original: "asplenium", since it consumes it; for ulcers of the lung, lungwort; for the windpipe, cassia; for a woman’s uterus, birthwort original: "aristolochia"; for the bladder, alkekengi winter cherry and others which are contained in the third book.

THAT PLANTS WHICH REPRESENT THE SIMILARITY OF ANIMAL PARTS POSSESS THE SAME POWERS.

Decorative woodcut initial 'S' with floral and scrollwork motifs.

There are also plants that represent the form of animal members rather than human ones, so that they may be understood to possess the virtues of those animals. Here it is fitting to bestow more accurate care, for from this more hidden storehouse of nature, the properties and riches of plants are brought forth. We said in our previous work on Physiognomy The study of judging character from physical features that just as man alone possessed the habits of all animals—brave as a lion, changeable as a fox, lustful as a deer, or quarrelsome as a dog—so too does he suffer the diseases of all living creatures. For he suffers from quartan fever like a lion, from hair loss term: "alopecia" (from the Greek 'alopex' for fox) like a fox, from lust like a deer, and from madness like a dog. For this reason, craftsman Nature displayed the shapes of animal members in herbs, so that man—the most miserable of all creatures—might learn how to bring help to his own illnesses.

In this work on Phytognomonics The study of plant signatures, we shall follow the pure and true dogma that we used in our works on Physiognomy. We have said that specific signs claim the primary role in investigation; these specific signs are drawn from animals. These signs correspond directly to passions afflictions or conditions and are mutually interchangeable: he to whom the sign applies also experiences the effect, and he who has the affliction likewise possesses the sign. Those who lack the signs lack the effects. We have provided an example: to investigate the proper sign of courage, we considered the genus of animals in which that passion exists universally, such as the genus of Lions, and then other genera of animals which might suffer that same passion not universally, but specifically...