Feb 22, 2021
Today we celebrate an American lyrical poet and playwright who
wrote some beautiful poems about flowers.
We'll also learn about the Scottish surgeon who advised using
sphagnum moss to treat wounded soldiers.
We hear inspiring words about Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis
“YER-anth-iss hy-uh-MAY-lis”)
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about medicine - herbal
medicine - an invaluable comprehensive reference.
And then we’ll wrap things up with the story of a favorite student
of Carl Linnaeus known as “the Vulture.”
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Important Events
February 22, 1892
Today is the birthday of the American lyrical poet and playwright
Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Gardeners cherish Edna’s verses like:
April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing
flowers.
I would blossom if I were a rose.
I will be the gladdest thing under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.
However, Edna threw some shade at the very poisonous and
rank-smelling Jimsonweed plant, the Thorn-apple, or Datura
stramonium (“duh-too-ruh stra-MO-nee-um") in her poem “In the Grave
No Flowers," writing:
Here the rank-smelling
Thorn-apple,—and who
Would plant this by his dwelling?
Well, it turns out the American botanist and geneticist Albert
Francis Blakeslee was especially fond of Datura.
In fact, one of Albert’s friends once joked that in his life,
Albert enjoyed two great love affairs — with his wife Margaret and
with Datura, and in that order.
Not surprisingly, Edna’s verse riled Albert, and in response, he
sent her a letter:
"I thought I would write to you, and … answer... your question
by saying that I would plant this by my dwelling and have done so
for the last thirty years rather extensively. It turns out
that this plant (Datura stramonium) is perhaps the very best plant
with which to discover principles of heredity."
Now, Datura's common name, Jimsonweed, is derived from Jamestown’s
colonial settlement, where British soldiers were given a salad made
with boiled “Jamestown weed” or Jimsonweed. For days after eating
the greens, instead of quelling the colonial uprising known as the
Bacon rebellion, the British soldiers turned fools, blowing
feathers in the air, running about naked, and acting entirely out
of their minds.
Datura’s other common names, the thorn apple or the devil’s apple,
offer a clue that Datura is a nightshade plant. Those sinister
names came about because nightshades were historically thought to
be evil.
In contrast, the Algonquin Indians and other ancient peoples
regarded Datura as a shamanistic plant, and they smoked Datura to
induce intoxication and hallucinations or visions.
The etymology of the name Datura comes from an early Sanskrit word
meaning “divine inebriation.”
February 22, 1932
Today is the anniversary of the death of the Scottish surgeon
Charles Walker Cathcart.
During WWI, Charles and his peer Isaac Balfour wrote a paper where
they advised following the common German practice of using sphagnum
moss to treat wounded soldiers. After this article, sphagnum moss
was robustly harvested for wound dressings for the British
Army.
An article published by the Smithsonian
Magazine called “How Humble Moss Healed the Wounds of
Thousands in World War I” shared the history of the use of
moss:
“In ancient times, Gaelic-Irish sources wrote that warriors in
the battle of Clontarf used moss to pack their wounds. Moss was
also used by Native Americans, who lined their children’s cradles
and [used] it as a type of natural diaper. It continued to be used
sporadically when battles erupted, including during the Napoleonic
and Franco-Prussian wars.
Lieutenant-Colonel E.P. Sewell of the General Hospital in
Alexandria, Egypt, wrote approvingly that, “It is very absorbent,
far more than cotton wool, and has remarkable deodorizing power.”
Lab experiments around the same time vindicated his observations:
Sphagnum moss can hold up to 22 times its own weight in liquid,
making it twice as absorbent as cotton.”
In response to Charles’ advice, communities organized moss drives.
A December 19, 1916 article from the Caspar
Star-Tribune out of Caspar Wyoming was simply titled:
Gather Moss For War Bandages. It read,
“Thousands of women and children, unable to perform other war
works, are daily combing the misty hills of Scotland and the Irish
west coast for moss for absorbent dressings. Recently they filled
an order for 20,000 bandages. The moss is wrapped in cotton gauze
and applied to open wounds.”
Unearthed Words
When the six-year-old Dorothy L. Sayers moved to her new home at
Bluntisham rectory in the Fens in January 1897:
As the fly turned into the drive, she cried out with
astonishment,
“Look, Auntie, look! The ground is all yellow, like the
sun.”
This sudden splash of gold remained in her memory all her life. The
ground was carpeted with early flowering aconites. Later, her
father told her the legend that these flowers grew in England only
where Roman soldiers have shed their blood, and Bluntisham
contained the outworks of a Roman camp. So as early as this, and as
young as she was, her imagination was caught by ancient Rome.
— Roy Vickery, author and Curator of Flowering Plants at the London
Natural History Museum, A
Dictionary of Plant Lore, Winter Aconite (Eranthis
hyemalis “YER-anth-iss hy-uh-MAY-lis”)
Grow That Garden Library
Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine by Andrew
Chevallier
This book came out in 2016, and the subtitle is 550 Herbs
and Remedies for Common Ailments.
In this book, you really get one of the remarkable reference books
of herbal remedies. The format is exact, and the information is
reliable. If your looking to learn about the herbs that can help
promote health and well-being, you have found a terrific
resource.
The instructions in this large volume are straightforward to
follow, and you will be able to cultivate your own garden
apothecary custom-tailored to your own health.
In addition, this herbal encyclopedia is easy to use and allows you
to look up information either with plant names or by ailments.
This book is 336 pages of a detailed herbal reference with proven
natural remedies and advice for growing herbs that will be the most
helpful to you in your garden this season.
You can get a copy of Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine by
Andrew Chevallier and support the show using the Amazon Link
in today's Show Notes for around $30
Today’s Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
February 22, 1756
Today is the anniversary of the death of the handsome and tall
Swedish botanist - and a favorite student of Carl Linnaeus known as
“the Vulture” - Pehr Loefling.
Pehr met Carl at the University of Uppsala, where Carl was his
professor. Early on, Carl dubbed Pehr his "most beloved pupil," and
he even gave Pehr a nickname; the Vulture. Carl came up with the
moniker after observing that Pehr had an intuitive way of finding
plants and observing the most minute details of plant
specimens.
When Pehr wrote his dissertation called “On the Buds of
Trees,” his observation skills were put to use. Pehr's paper
featured detailed descriptions of plants in bud in the offseason
instead of in full flower during the summer. This unique
perspective enabled people to identify many species in the leafless
winter - something that easily confounds plant lovers - even
today.
When Carl felt Pehr could be a role model, tutor, and a friend to
his son, he offered Pehr the chance to live with his family. Hence,
Pehr continued his studies while living with the Linneaus
family.
After graduating, Carl recommended Pehr for an opportunity in
Madrid, and this is how Pehr learned Spanish and befriended many
Spanish botanists who called him Pedro.
After two years of collecting over 1,400 specimens in Spain, Pehr
secured a paid position on the Royal Botanical Expedition to South
America with a mission of learning to cultivate a particular
variety of cinnamon thought to be superior to the standard variety.
By 1754, Pehr was botanizing in Venezuela with a small team that
included two doctors and two artists. Pehr was just 27 years old
when he died of malaria on the banks of the Caroní River at a
Mission outpost on this day in 1756. He was buried beneath an
orange tree.
By the end of the year, over half of the expedition’s men would be
dead from disease compounded by hunger and fatigue.
When Linnaeus shared the news about Pehr with a friend, he
wrote,
“The great Vulture is dead.”
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."