CREDITS: Wild rose and haws from the Colour Herbal by Nicholas Culpepper, 1649. This neat book
has stayed in print over 300 years. The latest edition is a large paperback issued by Sterling
Publishing of Tornonto, $17.95 (US), $24.95 (Can). Culpepper was an interesting character: an early
17th-century doctor who decided to try to serve the poor instead of getting rich doctoring the rich
like others of his class were doing. He prepared his herbal to help country people, who were being
forced off their land to the slums of London, so they could recognize herbs that could (in the
medical thinking of his day) help them. He used common, not scientific, names to organize the
plants, and color paintings to help the people identify them. His advice is nonsense, and the
modern herbalist who "updates" it isn't much better in a practical sense. The plants are all British,
with only an occasional one like this, the wild rose, that's similar everywhere -- but the book is
beautiful and a good read. From it, I finally learned what a Mangel-Wurzel is. I'm not telling!
Copyright 1995, Paula Giese
Last Updated: Thursday, December 28, 1995 - 4:50:50 PMNative Foods --Rose hips
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