<x-html><HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">I looked up colocasia on google and it seems to be called <BR> 'elephants' ear' . There is a picture at http://www.dipbot.unict.it/orto/0947-1.html.<BR> Less luck with baccar - should be something with berries though (bacca)<BR> Tamsin</FONT></HTML> </x-html>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Apr 17 11:18:00 2002 >From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Apr 17 14:42:55 2002 Received: ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) by wilsonwork.com (8.11.6) id g3HEb1817204; Wed, 17 Apr 2002 14:37:01 GMT X-Authentication-Warning: wilsonwork.com: wilsonwk set sender to [EMAIL PROTECTED] using -f From: "Patrick Roper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: VIRGIL: Eclogue plants Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 15:36:36 +0100 Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Importance: Normal Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Precedence: bulk Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-UIDL: DLN!!"#""!;ge"!K\*!! Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 53
Leofranc Holford-Strevens said: > The Greek bakkaris means an ointment made from asaron, said to be > hazelwort or _Asarum europaeum_; can any botanist assure us that this > plant would _not_ in ordinary times grow together with ivy (4. 19; > likewise colocasium should not associate with acanthus), and any > specialist in Italian folklore tell us that it protects against evil > spells (7. 27)? But then are we sure that Vergil knew what these plants > were, or simply picked up names he found attractive and bestowed on them > such qualities as it suited him for them to have? The Asarum grows in damp shady places often with ivy when it runs over the ground (I have somne Asarum growing with ivy here in the garden in East Sussex, England). Ivy and certain kinds of Cyclamen also grow together in this way, indeed, I have seen Cyclamen hederaeifolium (also known as 'neapolitanum') flowering in quantity along shady banks around Sorrento. This also flourishes in my garden and it does have leaves rather like ivy. An English word for cyclamen is 'sowbread' because pigs are very partial to the corms. Asarum, sometimes known as 'wild ginger' seems to have been used since ancient times as a kind of head-clearing snuff. Gertrude Jekyll said the roots smelled "like pepper and ginger mixed, but more aromatic". It is also a powerful emetic, as John Pechey put it in 1694 "purges violently, upwards and downwards" and usually gets a rather cursory mention in the herbals so it perhaps wasn't used a great deal. It is often called 'asarabacca' which seems to combine 'asaron' with Virgil's 'baccar'. Geoffrey Grigson (1955) in 'The Englishman's Flora' refers to Dioscorides and adds "And Virgil in the Eclogues wrote of a 'baccar' which grew with ivy, in the way of Asarum europeum." Colocasia might be, I thought, Colocasia antiquorum, the dasheen or taro which probably originated in India (the Elephant's Ears mentioned by Tamsin seems to apply more to the variety from the South Seas). It was grown in Egypt from the earliest times and called 'quolkas'. However, I do not know if 'colocasia' was the Roman name for this plant in antiquity. Acanthus has flowers that scent the air as they fade and dry, especially after cutting and I believe people used to press them between the pages of their favorite books to be able to enjoy this perfume. Is there perhaps a sense in which the ivy and the 'baccar' are a floral representation of a shady place and the colocasia and acanthus of a sunny one? Or is it just that we might have two aromatics (Asarum and Acanthus)that could be woven with a garlanding plant (ivy) and Colocasia. Because of his upbringing in the countryside, I would have thought Virgil was as good as anyone on the indigenous flora of his part of Italy as well as of cultivated plants. Sorry this is all a bit of a waffle - somewhat pressed for time today. Patrick Roper ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
