Moon poppies and poppies under Leo.

Poppies of sea and poppies of field.

Poppies that blast the impassive.

Poppies that baste the wastrel to sleep.

Yellow-horned poppy flourishes in May.

A cordial corrective for ringworm and plague.

Wild poppy saturates May to July.

Douses holy fire, St. Anthony’s fire,

hot ague and the burning urge to fall.

Scarlet countries of headache

(fields of corn rose and corn poppy).

Black poppy for tender eyes and offended ears.

White poppy procures rest and repose.

Sea poppy scatters ocular clouds.

Wild poppy lulls to lunar sleep.

Gladiolus [Book 4.20]

Staked straight the neck, the knife,

the wild iris forges forth. Little sword.

Unyielding sword lily. Blade-bolstered,

swaggering. Gladden the dagger leaves,

the steely rhizomes, with frankincense

and wine. A fume of few words.

A fetid anodyne. Stalks top-heavy,

woozy. The tipsy deadheads slip like fingers—

glazed and fused with honey-water and sun,

an opaque cornea flares a livid corona.

Prescribe a pale-sky corolla, an orange-red

burst of seed: as an antispasmodic; a cathartic;

a tweeze for prickles and stings. A decoction

of the lower root an effectual anaphrodisiac;

a decoction of the upper and the lust resumes.

elderberry

… and Lo Dearest Aerius,

In Unceasing Inquisitiveness. In Prudent Investigation.

With Gratitude. With Loving Benevolence. My Flowering Admiration.

APPENDIX A

Names of Plants

Numerals refer to volume and entry in Dioscorides, Cul. to Culpeper, Bot. to Botanical.com, Unk. to source unknown.

Planets, Stars, and Gods

Sunflower [Bot.]

Annual Mercury [4.191]

Dog’s Mercury [4.192]

English Mercury [Bot.]

Mercury’s Violet [4.18]

Three-seeded Mercury [4.94]

Venus’s Hair [4.136]

Venus’s Navelwort [4.92]

Earthgall [3.9]

Star of the Earth [2.158]

Jove’s Beard [3.153]

Jupiter’s Beard [4.89]

Moon Daisy [Bot.]

Moonstone [5.159]

Moon Trefoil [4.113]

Moonwort [3.105]

Star Anise [Bot.]

Starwort [2.214]

Autumnal-water Starwort [Cul.]

Garden Starwort [Cul.]

Sea Starwort [Cul.]

Star of Bethlehem [2.174; Bot.]

Great-Flowered Star of Bethlehem [2.201]

Yellow Star of Bethlehem [2.200]

Star of Hungary [Bot.]

Star Thistle [Cul.]

Hercule’s Woundwort [Cul.]

Archangel [Cul.]

Blasphemes and Oaths

Adam’s Apple! [1.166]

Bastard Agrimony! [4.59]

Bastard Hemp! [3.166]

Bastard Pellitory! [2.192]

Bastard Rocket! [2.170]

Bastard Rhubarb! [Cul.]

Bastard Sycamore! [1.181]

Bawd-Money! [4.124]

Bitter Vetch! [2.131]

Black Stinking Horehound! [3.117]

Blite and Wild Amaranth! [2.143]

Bush Vetch! [2.178]

By the Seed of the Lotus! [2.128]

Chaste Tree! [1.135]

Christ’s Thorn! [1.121]

Cocculus! [4.48]

Darnel and Cheat! [2.116]

O Devil in a Bush! [1.46]

Devil’s Spoons! [4.101]

Dry Rot! [1.112]

Fig! [1.183]

For the Love of Squirting Cucumbers! [1.54]

Fumitory! [4.110]

Good Laurel of Caesar! [4.147]

Great Monk’s Rhubarb! [Cul.]

Gum Succory! [2.161]

Hoary Plantain! [2.153]

Holy Hemp! [4.95]

Holy Herb! [4.61]

Holy Wormwood! [3.28]

Homer’s Moly! [3.54]

Livelong! [2.217]

Mare’s Tail and Witches’ Milk! [4.46]

Mother of Thousands Mind-your-own- business! [4.86]

Mother of Thyme! [3.44; Cul.]

Pig Nuts! [4.125]

Purging Buckthorn! [1.119]

Purging Croton! [4.164]

Scammony! [4.171]

Stinging Nettle! [4.94]

Stinking Motherwort! [4.49]

Stinkwort! [4.151]

Squill! [4.63]

Sweet Cicely! [4.116]

Sweet Maudlin! [4.59]

Sweet Virgin’s Bower! [4.182]

Walnuts! [1.178]