Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition

An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland

Assembled by two of the most distinguished botanical and ethnological scholars in Britain, this book chronicles the medicinal uses of more than 400 species used by the plain folk of Britain and Ireland. The history of these plants' usages has been mined from rich firsthand accounts captured by surveys, from more than 1000 manuscript volumes of the Irish Folklore Commission, and from close to 300 other published and unpublished sources. The book includes chosen illustrations from herbals such as those by Bock, Fuchs, and Brunfels, and a selection of color photographs by Deni Bown.

Media reviews of this book:

"Perfect for plant lovers, historians, and those interested in folklore."

—Bookseller, April 9, 2004

"A fascinating look at a large body of information on medicinal plant use by "common folk," representing traditions going back hundreds of years. Will interest readers from many subject backgrounds."

—Charlotte Tancin, Huntia, June 2005

"[The indexes] add greatly to the reference value of the book, although the authors' lively writing style is an invitation for casual reading as well."

—Barbara MacAlpine, American Reference Books Annual, 2005

"This was an ambitious scholarly work and, in light of the resurging interest in traditional and folk medicine, it is worthwhile to examine this book."

—Lynette Y. Wong, Plant Science Bulletin, Spring 2005

"Just another herb book? No! [This book] takes a fresh approach to presenting seldom seen data in a single source."

—Steven Foster, HerbalGram, February 2005

Read more media reviews

An excerpt from this book:

Except for pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), the members of the genus Mentha, if distinguished at all in the folk literature, have borne their vernacular names interchangeably and have been used medicinally for such a broadly similar range of ailments that it is appropriate to discuss them together. Most records probably relate to the native water mint (M. aquatica), the common species of wet places. That is widely known also as 'water peppermint' or 'wild peppermint', names rarely relating to the true peppermint (M. ×piperita), which is a garden hybrid, originating in England in the seventeenth century ...

Read the whole excerpt