The Scots Herbal [Paperback]

Tess Darwin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1873644604 | ISBN-13: 978-1873644607 | Publication Date: November 1999

To our ancestors, there was no such thing as a weed. Every growing thing had a role to play in daily life - as an ingredient for food, as medicine, as a dye or as fodder for livestock. Tess Darwin reveals the forgotten secrets of Scottish plant lore in fascinating detail, showing how many of the plant remedies which were dismissed by modern scientists as superstition have since been found to be effective in treating illness and have led to the creation of many new drugs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A generous book, a model of research and organisation.' Times Literary Supplement 'Worthwhile and entirely relevant, not just to Scotland. Ethnobotany ... helps engender respect for nature.' BBC Wildlife 'A unique and longed-for book.' Scottish Book Collector 'The first comprehensive guide to the many ways in which wild plants have been used in Scotland over the centuries. It covers the history and folklore of plants, and their use in textiles, arts and crafts.' Scottish Home and Country

About the Author

Tess Darwin gained her ethnobotanical expertise in Central Africa and Australasia. She later returned to Scotland and began a decade of research on the usage of plants.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Mercat Pr (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1873644604
• ISBN-13: 978-1873644607
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #538,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Scots Herbal ( The Plant Lore of Scotland), October 24, 2000

By 

Rableather "rableather" (scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Scots Herbal (Paperback)

This is a delightful book which breaks into two sections. The first deals with the plants generally and there uses throughout history taking into account religious and political changes to both the nature of the land and attitudes to their usage. It is an extremely intelligent and insightful account based on a great deal of research and knowledge, and some wonderful humour imbedded in the text. The second part of the book tells the reader of the indigenous plants by common, Latin, Scots and Gaelic names. It looks at the use specific plants were put to. and although it does not tell you how to make a plant dye, or how to make a poultice, there are many books which do. This book is , in my experience as a Scot living in Scotland who has been interested in herbalism for over a decade a unique find.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but take some bits with a grain of salt, September 7, 2006

By 

Erynn Laurie "Professional Madwoman" (Everett, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Scots Herbal (Paperback)

I got this one recently, and in parts it's an excellent book. I would advise taking at least some of it with a grain of salt, though, as she does rather go on about the fictional Celtic Great Goddess and the equally fictional Tree Calendar a bit. She seems to take all sources as equally valid, citing authors like Robert Graves, Mary Daly, and Kaledon Naddair along side authorities like F. Marian MacNeill and Anne Ross and more technical documents like pollen studies.

This said, she seems to be an excellent source for Gaelic names of plants, medicinal traditions in the Highlands and Islands, and material regarding fiber arts and dyeing. She falls down a bit where she goes with Gravesian and NeoPagan sources for spiritual information. I feel that this is definitely worth the money, but one should take certain of her assertions with some caution.

4.0 out of 5 stars The Scots Herbal, November 10, 2011

By 

CarolinaSnowflower - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Scots Herbal (Paperback)

This is an excellent book to wet your appetite for herbal remedies & Scottish/Gaelic lore.
Although the book does not give explicit instructions on how to prepare the herbs, it does give you plenty of information of what the herbs were used for, along with historical information. There are 140 references listed in the Bibliography section, toward the back of the book.
A very interesting book!