[Air-L] Linnaean plant folklore rediscovered.

[Gerard Cheshire]

Association of Internet Researchers.

Dear Listers,
You may be interested to read that the source of Linnaeus' idea on using the mythology about Andromeda and Perseus to name a plant genus has been found in a page of a Medieval manuscript, dating from 1444. The manuscript is written in Lusophone-Latin.

It had previously been thought that Linnaeus had indulged in a flight of wild imagination in naming the plant Andromeda, but we now know that he was simply referencing familiar medicinal folklore about the plant, which had since been lost to history. Now it has been rediscovered.

A paper is available to freely download from the LingBuzz website. Plant Page, No. 6: https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004971
Plant Series, No. 6. Manuscript MS408. - lingbuzz/004971<https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/004971>
The plants individually described in Manuscript MS408 have all been identified as species from the environs of the Mediterranean Basin, in accordance with the location of origin for the manuscript. Th - lingbuzz, the linguistics archive
ling.auf.net

Please feel free to disseminate the information to other scholars who may have an interest.
Kindest regards,
Dr. Gerard Cheshire.

Research Associate.
University of Bristol.