Flora Unveiled

266 i Flora Unveiled

German Count that the plant images in one of the Apuleian herbals were “so lifelike that it
is not possible to express it more cunningly,” despite the fact that this particular herbal was
among the most stylized of all the medieval herbals.^19

Pre- Islamic Vegetation Goddesses in the Quran

The Arabian Peninsula out of which Islam emerged in the seventh century is in fact a
subcontinent slightly larger than India or Europe, riding its own tectonic plate. The
Romans divided the Arabian Peninsula into three geographical zones, Arabia Petraea

(a)

Figure 10.8 Anglo- Norman Herbals. A. “Gallitrichum”; “Immolum” (perhaps houseleek,
Sempervivum tectorum); Homer and Mercury and “Immolum.” Herbarium of Apuleius Platonicus,
England, c. 1200. B. Asphodel (Asphodelus sp.); Sorrel, Rumex acetosa) and a Centaur holding a
“Centauria,” perhaps Centaurium sp. Herbarium of Apuleius Platonicus, England, c. 1200.
From Blunt, W., and S. Raphael (1994), The Illustrated Herbal, Revised Edition; Thames and Hudson, pp. 46– 47.