Abstract

The Permanence of Herbs

The article focuses on two books by M. Grieve, "Modern Herbal" and "Culinary Herbs and Condiments." The first English herbal is a Saxon manuscript, the Leech Book of Bald, dating from the tenth century. And when it was written, its lore of herbs was already deep buried in the mists of antiquity. Already betony, vervain, yarrow, mugwort, and waybroad were used for their healing properties, and had been so used for more centuries than any historian has yet discovered. Grieve's is certainly the best modern attempt to assemble the ancient lore of herbs. In her noble two-volume list of herbs, their cultivation, history, and properties with delicate arid accurate illustrations, she has provided all that a modern herbalist could ask and much more than the ordinary gardener could use concerning common garden plants.