WALAFRED STRABO : A GARDENER OF THE " DARK " AGES. 135 
VJUU1U •• • • •• •• 
Onrnrhita 
\S L4.V-/ 14. X L/l LCI 
Piimnkin 
X Lllll L/XV111 • • • • • • 
"Ppnonps 
Worm wood 
VV vl 111 VV \J\J\J. • • • • • • 
Absinthium 
± X. LrOlll LXXX IXXXX 
1-T orph on n d 
Vllv UX1U • • • • • • 
M a rmbi 11m 
Fennel 
Foeniculum 
Gladiolus 
Gladiola 
Luvestiche, lufestice 
Lybisticum 
Chervil 
Cerfolium 
Lilies 
Lilia Candida 
? Clary 
Sclarega 
Mint . . 
Mentha 
Ppti n vwnrt 
x ciui y w ui l • • • • • • 
X LtH31LliIl 
Gely flower 
Vettonica 
Hynd-haelethe, hyndhele . . 
Ambrosia 
Agrimony 
Agrimonia 
Catmint 
Nepeta 
Radish 
Rafanum 
Rose 
It will of course be seen that most of these are grown for use 
rather than ornament, and after several Walafred notes the medical 
or other useful property of his nursling. Fennel for the eyes 
" ventrisque tumorem," lilies for snake-bite, mint for the voice. 
Ambrosia absorbs blood in equal proportion to the quantity drunk. 
Abrotanum mixed " Paeoniis medellis " for fever and for gout 
(" Furtivae injuria guttae *'). " Drink horehound hot from the fire 
after dinner if you are poisoned by your stepmother." (What grim 
light on strained relations the celibate throws here !) " For headache 
use an infusion of absinthium and plaster your head with a crown of 
the wet leaves." Thus is given that type of paragraph which rules 
all the old herbals and has only lately faded, perhaps not wisely, from 
our botanies. 
Still these medicinal virtues do not absorb all his interest. He 
is equally alive to the domestic use of plants: e.g. the fullers use 
gladiola to give whiteness. But it is on pumpkins and gourds that 
there is most to say. Of the latter the seeds while tender may be 
used for food, or slices soaked with lard in a hot frying-pan — " ebria 
(why ' ebria ' ? — ever so often drinking in the lard ?) multotiens " — 
will give a placid relish at dessert. I like " placidum saporem," it 
so exactly expresses the vegetable marrow. Thus far he carries his 
reader with him, but the next recipe is more obscure. " Take," he 
would seem to say, " not one of the long thin ' pepones/ but one of 
the oblong sort (which has ' oblongo scemate ventrem/ a belly of 
prolonged shape), something between a nut and an egg, then work 
it between your hands like a ball (or is it bubble ?) of beauty-soap 
which lathers (' lomenti bulla salivam agens ') and softens before it is 
macerated : while it sticks to your fingers as you squeeze it and rub 
it in alternate hands, there comes a little opening in it (' parvo fit 
