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127 results
  • Holly (Ilex aquifolium): leaves and berries. Watercolour drawings.
  • A thrush eating berries. Etching by W. Hayes, ca. 1775.
  • A fruiting plant with red berries, possibly of the Caprifoliaceae family. Watercolour.
  • Bright, cherry-red berries, with green leaves. Painting by a Chinese artist, ca. 1850.
  • A branch of holly (Ilex species) with blue berries and three ito mushrooms (Armillaria matsutake). Watercolour.
  • Smilacina racemosa Desf. syn. Maianthemum racemosum (L.)Link Convallariaceae. False Spikenard, False Solomon's Seal, Scurvy berries, Treacle berries. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution: North America. Austin (2004) reports on Native American traditional usage: Cold infusion of the roots for sore eyes (Cherokee)
  • Three fruiting plant stems, including a rose, a liliaceous plant and a tree with red berries. Watercolour.
  • Above: calligraphy by Saigō Takamori; below, an extravagant peony and branch with berries, by Taki Katei. Colour woodcut, 1880/1881.
  • A workshop in which oils are made from trees, nuts, berries etc. for foodstuffs and medicines. Woodcut by J. Amman.
  • Porridge with yoghurt and berries : a quick and yummy breakfast ... : Change4life / [produced by COI for the Department of Health].
  • Porridge with yoghurt and berries : a quick and yummy breakfast ... : Change4life / [produced by COI for the Department of Health].
  • Smilacina racemosa Desf. syn. Maianthemum racemosum (L.)Link Convallariaceae. False Spikenard, False Solomon's Seal, Scurvy berries, Treacle berries. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution: North America. Probably introduced to England by John Tradescant the Younger in 1656 as it appears in his garden plant catalogue in Musaeum Tradescantianum in 1656. Austin (2004) reports on Native American traditional usage: a cold infusion of the roots was used for sore eyes (Cherokee)
  • Vaccinium corymbosum L. Ericaceae Bilberry. Deciduous shrub. Distribution: North America. The berries are eaten and rich in Vitamin C. Native Americans used them as a dressing on acute erysipelas (Milspaugh, 1974). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Vaccinium corymbosum L. Ericaceae Bilberry. Deciduous shrub. Distribution: North America. The berries are eaten and rich in Vitamin C. Native Americans used them as a dressing on acute erysipelas (Milspaugh, 1974). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Dianella tasmanica Hook.f. Phormiaceae Tasman flax lily. Distribution: Australia. A pretty plant, but also a source of fine fibre. The leaves are used for making baskets and the berries as a dye source. No medicinal use found, but the fruit is an irritant
  • Aralia spinosa L. Araliaceae. Devil's walking stick, Prickly ash, Hercules' club. Tree. Distribution: Eastern North America. Contact with sap causes skin irritation, raw berries mildly toxic to humans, causing diarrhoea and vomiting. Eaten by bears. Used medicinally by Native Americans for a variety of conditions. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Myrtus communis L. Myrtaceae Myrtle Distribution: Europe. Dioscorides (Beck, 2005) recommends the fruit for treating haemoptysis (‘spitting blood’) and cystitis, and, if boiled, he said it made a fine wine. In various forms it was used as a hair dye, for sore eyes, anal and uterine prolapse, dandruff and shingles, all sorts of inflammations, scorpion bites and even sweaty armpits. Our plant has white berries, but he regarded those with black berries (they become black later in the season) as being more effective. Lyte (1576) adds that the juice of the berries kept the hair black and stopped it falling out, and prevented intoxication. He notes that it only flowered in hot summers in England, but it is reliable in flower now, either due to global warming or selection of suitable clones. According to Lyte, it is named after Merlyne, a fair maiden of Athens in ancient Greece, who judged the athletic games. Slain by a disgruntled competitor, the goddess Minerva brought her back as the myrtle tree in perpetual memory. The myrtle tree is also an ancient Jewish symbol for peace and justice. Myrtle wine is still made in Tuscany and now even in China. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Ruscus aculeatus L. Ruscaceae Butchers Broom., Box holly, Knee Holly, Jew’s myrtle. Distribution: Mediterranean to Britain. Aculeatus means 'prickly' which describes the plant well. Dioscorides in 70 AD (Gunther, 1959) says of this plant ‘... ye leaves and berries drunk in wine have ye force to move urine, expel the menstrua, and to break ye stones in ye bladder ...’ and adds also ‘ ... it cures also ye Icterus and ye strangurie and ye headache.' Its use did not change for a millennium and a half
  • Osmanthus delavayi Franch. Oleaceae Evergreen shrub. Distribution: China. Osmanthus is derived from the Greek for 'fragrant flower', delavayi from its discoverer, the French Missionary with the Missions Étrangères, and plant collector, Pierre Delavay (1834-1895). He sent 200,000 herbarium specimens containing 4000 species including 1,500 new species to Franchet at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. He sent seed of O. delavayi to France (1886), but only one germinated, and all the plants in cultivation until it was recollected 40 years later, arose from this plant (Bretschneider, 1896). The flowers are used to make a tea in China, but the berries (drupes) are not regarded as edible. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Ginkgo berry
  • Taxus baccata L. Taxaceae European Yew. Trees are feminine in Latin, so while Taxus has a masculine ending (-us), its specific name, baccata (meaning 'having fleshy berries' (Stearn, 1994)), agrees with it in gender by having a female ending ( -a). Distribution: Europe. Although regarded as poisonous since Theophrastus, Gerard and his school friends used to eat the red berries (they are technically called 'arils') without harm. Johnson clearly ate the fleshy arils and spat out the seed, which is as poisonous as the leaves. It is a source of taxol, an important chemotherapeutic agent for breast and other cancers. It was first extracted from the bark of T. brevifolia, the Pacific yew tree, in 1966. About 1,100 kg of bark produces 10 g of taxol, and 360,000 trees a year would have been required for the needs of the USA – an unsustainable amount. In 1990 a precursor of taxol was extracted from the needles of the European yew so saving the Pacific trees. It is now produced in fermentation tanks from cell cultures of Taxus. Curiously, there is a fungus, Nodulisporium sylviforme, which lives on the yew tree, that also produces taxol. Because taxol stops cell division, it is also used in the stents that are inserted to keep coronary arteries open. Here it inhibits – in a different way, but like anti-fouling paint on the bottom of ships – the overgrowth of endothelial cells that would otherwise eventually block the tube. The economic costs of anticancer drugs are significant. Paclitaxel ‘Taxol’ for breast cancer costs (2012) £246 every 3 weeks
  • Instructions for administering Hill and Berry's medicine.
  • John Gerard. Line engraving by T. Berry after J. Payne, 1633.
  • John Gerard. Line engraving by T. Berry after J. Payne, 1633.
  • Hill and Berry's medicine for cure of rabies
  • John Bulwer. Line engraving by T. Berry, 1820, after W. Faithorne.
  • Charles-Ferdinand d'Artois, Duc de Berry. Lithograph by Nicolas-Eustache Maurin.
  • Black bryony or murraim berry plant (Tamus communis): fruiting stem. Watercolour, 1904.
  • Berry Dental Engine. Fig. 101, page 238, 'Dental Electricity' by Levitt E Custer, 1901.
  • Dr. P.O. Baldo's celebrated Blood and Liver Pills : the best anti-bilious pills in the world / L.M. Berry.