## <f1v>          {$I=H $Q=A $P=B $L=A $H=1}
# Last edited on 1998-10-10 03:11:09 by stolfi
#
# Identification:
#
#   Title: "Petersen's belladonna"
#   Page: f1v = AB (Rene) = p002 (Stolfi)
#   Folio: f1
#   Panels: f1v
#   Bifolio: bA1 = f1+f8
#   Quire: A (Rene) = I (Beinecke)
#
# Attributes:
#
#   Language: A (Currier)
#   Hand: 1 (Currier)
#   Subsets: H (Rene), hea (Stolfi)
#   Subject: herbal
#   Petersen's plant 1
#   Colors: green,tan (Reeds)
#   Plant: 1 (Petersen)
#
# Description:
#
#   One plant centered on page. 
#
#     Root: a knobby, warped, pancanke-like tuber with 
#       short roots attached like claws or fangs 
#       all around the rim. Light color.
#     Stem: thick, well drawn. Light color.
#     Branches: one straight up, two oblique with drooping tips.
#     Leaves: broad lance-shape, with two short tails.
#       Stalk: short.
#     Flowers: one, growing at the tip of the center branch.  
#       Stalk: very short.  Chalyx:
#       conical, continuous with petals.  Petals: short rounded,
#       light-colored.  Core: hemispherical, dark-colored
#       (could be a berry; see below).
#
#   Two paragraphs (with 3.8 and 5.8 lines), just below mid-page, 
#   left- and right-justified, interrupted by the plant's main stem.
#
# Comments:
#
#   Part of this drawing (root and leaves only) is repeated on
#   Pharma page f102r1[3,2].
#
#   The plant looks basically normal, except for the very peculiar
#   root.
#
#   Petersen identifies the plant as "Solanum Solatrium, Belladonna"
#   specifically the "flower".  He says: "see L.Fuchs p.398".  There is
#   no "Solanum solatrium"; rather, "solatrium" is an ancient
#   (Dioscoridean) name for some or all of these species:
#
#     Atropa Belladona  (deadly nightshade)
#     http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/library/kohler/1763_010.jpg
#     http://130.60.70.1/GIFTDB/pict_02.htm
#
#     Hyoscyamus niger (henbane)
#     http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/library/kohler/1763_011.jpg
#     http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/nordflor/110.html
#
#     Solanum nigrum (black nightshade)
#     http://axp.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/WEEDS/black_nightshade.html
#
#     Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet)
#     http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/poison/ppstsleurop.htm
#     http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/nordflor/109.html
#
#   and perhaps other somewhat less likely species such as Withania
#   somnifera and Physalis alkekengi. 
#
#   The leaves of f1v seem most compatible those of Atropa belladonna
#   (shape) and Hyoscyamus niger (attachment to stem), and the "flower"
#   at the top of f1v does resemble the sheathed, shiny black fruits of
#   these two species.
#
#   However, A.beladonna's root has been described as a roundish rhizome
#   with a long (up to 1m) tapering root, which does not seem to match
#   the highly distinctive "pancake with claws" of f1v.  I have found no
#   image or description of the other plants' roots.
#
#   A very similar root, with quite different leaves, can be seen on
#   another Italian herbal: 
#   University of Vermont Library MS 2, fol. 39 (ca. 1500)
#   http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/biomed/his/immi/vm9437.htm
#   The medieval text calls that plant "Gran[i]a maggiore".  
#   The modern commentary tentatively identifies it with
#   Ecballium elaterium (Squirting Cucumber), 
#   http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/mi10/mi10043.jpg 
#   However the leaves do not match, and the flower barely so.
#   I have found no image or description of E.elaterium's roots.
#
#   All four plants are poisonous in varying degrees. The active
#   principles can be absorbed by smoking or through the skin as well as
#   by ingestion.  They were used as potent psychoactive drugs, causing
#   paralysis of involuntary muscles, dizziness, sleep, hallucinations,
#   violent behavior, etc., and have been often associated with
#   witchcraft.
