Talk of the Devil…
This extract from AG 26 December 1964 looks at plants that, according to legend, have links with the Devil
THE Devil seems to have spent some considerable time wandering in the countryside, leaving his mark, or legends about himself, on many features of the landscape, as well as on several of our wild plants. However, he must have been fearful of entering private gardens for, among cultivated flowers, there are very few with any reference to him at all.
His first venture into a more domestic scene was when he brought the Devil’s apple or mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) from southern Europe in the early 16th century. These were, according to the 17th century English herbalist and botanist Gerard, ‘only planted in gardens, and are not elsewhere to be found in England.’
Belonging to the potato
