The Lasting Presence of Gerard's Herball

writing, “…the root champed or chewed procureth spitting, and causeth water and flegme
to run forth of the mouth, as Pellitorie of Spain doth” (p.378).
In the worn pages of Gerard, I came upon another “old fashioned” plant, Jupiter’s
Beard. With a head of flowers atop an erect, stiff, and bristly stalk (all in relief on the
block and thus captured in detail in the print), this was not the Jupiter’s beard I knew
(Centranthus ruber). Then I remembered a plant my mother-in-law gave me, from her
rock garden. I called Catherine on the phone. Did she remember how she acquired it?
“Well,” she said. “Edward took care of the garden, and you know, he was a great one for
walking around the neighborhood, and if he saw something he liked, he’d take a sample
of it.” Edward had collected Gerard’s Sempervivum, from the Latin semper, “always,”
and vivo, “live.” The woodcut image of a plant, alive on the pages of Gerard’s Herball,
had transformed into the memory of a man, alive forever in my garden.
As I looked again at the anemone, considering the 17 th century observations of the
same plant, I was reminded that the influence of the medicinal branch of plant study is
also evident in the woodcuts used to illustrate Gerard’s herbal. Herbalists are concerned
with all parts of a plant that are useful, including the roots. The woodcuts in the herbal
almost always present plants singly and in isolation, and all potentially useful parts of
each plant are included in a drawing.
V. Herbs and medicine
A question arises for me at this juncture. Who else read Gerard’s Herball? Who
might have plucked a flower, brought it into the house, and confirmed its medicinal
properties in this book? My account so far indicates that the botanists and physicians left
records—did rural people, women tending gardens, and working farmers read Gerard?
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