EXHIBITS
Plants in the Renaissance: Dangerous Plants
Dangerous Plants
John Gerard and his contemporaries interested in botany would often keep personal gardens in their own homes, both for their studies and as a sort of collection. These gardens would typically contain a great variety of exotic and rare plants, even those of a more deadly nature.
Here are just a few examples of lethal plants that would decorate a renaissance man's garden. Perhaps some uses for having these plants nearby could be to teach others the dangers of these plants, and to help identify them. Additionally, many of the dangerous plants that Gerard describes are actually quite useful in medicine when used correctly.
Foxglove
Varieties: Purple Foxglove (Digitalis Purpurea), White Foxglove (Digitalis Alba), Yellow Foxglove (Digitalis Lutea), Dusky Foxglove (Digitalis ferruginea)
Foxglove has long nicked leaves, and its flowers resemble long, slender fingers, giving it the name Digitalis. Foxglove typically grows under hedges and in barren, sandy ground across Northern England, and flowers in June and July.
Although Foxglove is poisonous, it does have some cleansing qualities. Gerard says it is bitter and not good for medicine, but lists its use in a remedy for phlegm and naughty humors, and in unstopping the liver and spleen. This remedy is administered by boiling it in water or wine.
In Culpeper's herbal, he lists more uses for Foxglove, particularly serving the plant mixture to a patient with ale, sugar, or honey. He lists the King's Evil, a sore head, and falling sickness as curable by Foxglove. In the case of falling sickness, he claims that it works even on someone afflicted for over twenty years.