A leading historic plant expert bring the botanical heritage of early America back to life, documenting more than fifty species of flowers and herbs and providing details on how they were cultivated and used.

"Pennyroyal. All-heal. Love-in-a-mist. Ragged robin. Viper's bugloss. These plants, whose very names conjure up a bygone world, were among the great variety of flowers and herbs grown in America's colonial and early Federal gardens. This sumptuously illustrated book brings this botanical heritage back to life." "Drawing on years of archival research and field trials, Colonial Williamsburg curator of plants Lawrence Griffith documents fifty-eight species of flowers and herbs and explores how they were cultivated and used." "Barbara Lombardi's glorious photographs capture the delicacy and strength of the flowers and herbs. Elegant period hand-colored engravings, watercolors, and woodcuts provide provocative visual counterparts to the modern photography." "This book is a dazzling treat for armchair gardeners and for those who have visited and admired the famous gardens in Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area. It is also an important contribution to our understanding of colonial and Federal plants and an invaluable companion for today's gardeners, who will appreciate the advice of a master gardener on how to plan, choose appropriate species, and maintain a beautiful period garden."--BOOK JACKET.

Charming text gives more than 500 authentic recipes for medicinal, culinary, cosmetic, and other purposes — everything from cancer and palsy treatments to gravies, sauces, and pies. 113 black-and-white illustrations.

An encyclopedia of North American medicinal plants, this classic herbalist’s guide goes inside Native American herbalism and other natural healing traditions around the world For more than twenty years, this pioneering work had served as a bible for herbalists throughout the world. It is an illustrated encyclopedic guide to more than two hundred medicinal plants found in North America, with descriptions of each plant’s appearance and uses, and directions for methods of use and dosage. Native American traditions are compared with traditional uses of the same plants among other cultures where the science of herbs has flourished, particularly in Russia and China. Included is an annotated bibliography of pertinent books and periodicals.

A Colonial Williamsburg garden historian outlines traditional methods for planting and tending 50 different kinds of vegetables, profiling such 18th-century utilities as shelter paper and fermented manure while sharing complementary weather-watching guidelines, organic techniques and seed-saving advice.

A guide to identifying herbaceous weeds and wildflowers as they are found in winter in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada, featuring illustrated in-depth entries on 391 species of herbaceous plants, and briefer mentions of 191 similar species.

An authoritative and easy-to-use reference to the medicinal and edible properties of wild plants from throughout the upper Midwest. An essential guide for anyone interested in natural healing.

These are all words that describe the singular appeal of plants with black (or near-black) foliage, flowers, or fruit. For some gardeners, they are curiosities that yield a special thrill when closely examined. For others, they are invaluable for creating sophisticated designs in which dark leaves and foliage provide essential contrast with brighter elements. Whatever the source of their somber magic, these dusky denizens of the plant kingdom are irresistible to gardeners-or indeed to anyone drawn to nature's more unusual manifestations.

For early American households, the herb garden was an all-purpose medicine chest. Herbs were used to treat apoplexy (lily of the valley), asthma (burdock, horehound), boils (onion), tuberculosis (chickweed, coltsfoot), palpitations (saffron, valerian), jaundice (speedwell, nettles, toad flax), toothache (dittander), hemorrhage (yarrow), hypochondria (mustard, viper grass), wrinkles (cowslip juice), cancers (bean-leaf juice), and various other ailments. But herbs were used for a host of other purposes as well — and in this fascinating book, readers will find a wealth of information on the uses of herbs by homemakers of the past, including more than 500 authentic recipes, given exactly as they appeared in their original sources. Selected from such early American cookbook classics as Miss Leslie's Directions for Cookery, Mary Randolph's The Virginia Housewife, Lydia Child's The American Frugal Housewife, and other rare publications, the recipes cover the use of herbs for medicinal, culinary, cosmetic, and other purposes. Readers will discover not only how herbs were used in making vegetable and meat dishes, gravies and sauces, cakes, pies, soups, and beverages, but also how our ancestors employed them in making dyes, furniture polish, insecticides, spot removers, perfumes, hair tonics, soaps, tooth powders, and numerous other products. While some formulas are completely fantastic, others (such as a sunburn ointment made from hog's lard and elder flowers) were based on long experience and produced excellent results. More than 100 fine nineteenth-century engravings of herbs add to the charm of this enchanting volume — an invaluable reference and guide for plant lovers and herb enthusiasts that will "delight and astound the twentieth-century reader." (Library Journal).

The author of ‘the bible on herbalism’ returns with a portable guide on North American medicinal herbs—for the professional and amateur herbalist alike Based on the now-classic reference text Indian Herbalogy of North America, this illustrated pocket guide is the perfect companion for those eager to expand their knowledge of herbal healing. Through detailed descriptions and illustrations, Alma R. Hutchens walks readers through: • 125 of the most useful medicinal herbs found in North America, and their uses • How to create herbal remedies for common ailments • The herbal traditions of North America and other lands Entries include staples of folk medicine such as echinacea and slippery elm as well as common kitchen herbs—from parsley to thyme to pepper—whose tonic and healing properties are less widely known.