Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

MANDRAKE (Mandragora officinarum)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 566 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

MANDRAKE (Mandragora officinarum) , a plant of the See also:potato See also:family, See also:order See also:Solanaceae, a native of the Mediterranean region. It has a See also:short See also:stem bearing a tuft of ovate leaves, with a thick fleshy and often forked See also:root. The See also:flowers are solitary, with a See also:purple See also:bell-shaped corolla; the See also:fruit is a fleshy See also:orange-coloured See also:berry. The mandrake has been See also:long known for its poisonous properties and supposed virtues. It acts as an emetic, purgative and narcotic, and was much esteemed in old times; but, except in See also:Africa and the See also:East, where it is used as a narcotic and See also:anti-spasmodic, it has fallen into well-earned disrepute. In See also:ancient times, according to Isidorus and See also:Serapion, it was used as a narcotic to diminish sensibility under surgical operations, and the same use is mentioned by Kazwini, i. 297, S.V. " Luffal}." See also:Shakespeare more than once alludes to this plant, as in Antony and See also:Cleopatra: " Give me to drink mandragora." The notion that the plant shrieked when touched is alluded to in Romeo and Juliet: " And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the See also:earth, that living mortals, See also:hearing them, run mad." The mandrake, often growing like the See also:lower limbs of a See also:man, was supposed to have other virtues, and was much used for love philtres, while the fruit was supposed, and in the East is still supposed, to facilitate pregnancy (Aug., C. See also:Faust. xxii. 56; cf. Gen. See also:xxx. 14, where the See also:Hebrew re iE„I'1 is undoubtedly the mandrake).

Like the See also:

mallow, the mandrake was potent in all kinds of enchantment (see See also:Maimonides in Chwolson, Ssabier, ii. 459). Dioscorides identifies it with the KipKafa, the root named after the enchantress See also:Circe. To it appears to apply the See also:fable of the magical See also:herb Baaras, which cured demoniacs, and was procured at See also:great See also:risk or by the See also:death of a See also:dog employed to See also:drag it up, in See also:Josephus (B. J. vii. 6, § 3). The See also:German name of the plant (Alraune; O. H. G. Alr:Ina) indicates the prophetic See also:power supposed to be in little images (homunculi, Goldmannchen, Galgenmannchen) made of this root which were cherished as oracles. The See also:possession of such roots was thought to ensure prosperity. (See Du Cange, s.vv.

"Mandragora" and See also:

Littre.) See also:Gerard in 1597 (Herball, p. 280) described male and See also:female mandrakes, and Dioscorides also recognizes two such See also:plants corresponding to the See also:spring and autumn See also:species (M. vernalis an,' M. officinarum respectively), differing in the See also:colour of the foliage shape of fruit.

End of Article: MANDRAKE (Mandragora officinarum)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
MANDOLINE (Fr. mandoline; Ger. Mandoline; It. mando... 		[next]
MANDRILL (a name formed by the prefix " man " to th...

Site © 2006 - Net Industries