¤ Plant ID: Collocasia, Egyptian lotus, Nymphoides Peltata (R. Zandbergen)

Description:

  One plant centered on page. 

    * Root: long straight rhizome, covered with rough bristles/scales
      and round stalk scars, each scar having two or three dots.
    * Stem: single, vertical, slightly bent, shooting out from middle 
      of rhizome; dark painted. 
    * Branches: there is the stub of a lost branch at mid-stalk.
    * Leaves: a single large leaf, horz, shaped like a very fat C,
      with smooth rim. Painted solid dark.
      Stalk: short.
    * Flowers: one white flower, pointing almost straight up.
      Stalk: long, light colored, with a darker vein; part of it
      obscured by leaf which should be behind it.  Chalyx: well-drawn,
      with thick tongue-shaped sepals, light colored.  Petals:
      well-drawn, flaring, lily shaped, serrated edges, white
      underpaint.  Core: not visible.  Stamen: long, with a few short
      hairs.

  Two paragraphs (with lines, respectively), left- and
  right-justified: one at the top, interrupted by the single flower,
  and one just below mid-page, interrupted by the main stem.

  Rene notes [04 Apr 1999] that there is a Roman 'fe' or 'fc' 
  above the <or> of the first word of the second paragraph.

Comments:

  The plant looks quite natural and well-drawn.

  Presumably, the flower stem was in front of the leaf in the
  original drawing; but the dark overpaint covered it. The original
  outline of the leaf may have been obscured, too.

  The leaf shape suggests it is a water plant. With that assumption,
  the choices are quite few. Rene [???] proposes ¶{Nymphaea:candida}
  (a.k.a. ¶{Nymphaea:alba}; water lily, seerose).  Michael Roe [1]
  mentions another variant, ¶{Nymphoides:peltata} ("Nymphaia" in
  Dioscorides, "al qulqas ahli" in the Arabic translation).

References:

  [1] Michel Roe's Voynich site, page about plants.
  http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/mrr/voynich/plants.html

Last edited on 1999-04-16 15:10:01 by stolfi