RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A GOOD BASIC BOOK ABOUT HERBS?

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

I hope everyone is having a good start to the New Year weekend and I

hope those list members in Denver are staying safe and warm.

 

Thanks to Butch and others I feel like I'm pretty well set with

reference materials for essential oils/carrier oils/etc. and now I

would like to start looking at herbs and their uses. I'm still making

my way through the old archived messages and despite seeing numerous

messages re specific herbs, I haven't come across too many messages

about herbs in general.

 

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good basic beginners book re

herbs, their uses and of course the safety issues associated with each

herb?

 

Thanks again for all your input in the past and hopefully as I get more

and more familiar with things, I'll be able to start giving input

instead of asking questions all the time but I gotta start somewhere.

 

Mary Ann

[Guest guest]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good basic beginners book re

herbs, their uses and of course the safety issues associated with each

herb?

 

[Dave:] There are many. The things I look for in an herb manual are good

illustrations for positive ID (for instance, sweet cicely and poison hemlock

look really similar – a good manual will provide both visual and data info

for telling them apart); a comprehensive approach – plus I want it all in a

volume that will fit in my back pocket! Obviously there is no single book

that meets every need, but one of my very favorites is the book “Herbs” in

the Smithsonian Handbooks series. It’s published by Dorling Kindersley –

their stuff is excellent. I make a couple of quick checks in any herbal I

haven’t seen before, just to get an idea if their info is accurate and

whether I think they did their own research or just copied someone else’s.

Does the book clearly distinguish between linden and lime? Calendula and

marigold? What does it say about cannabis and peyote? (I find that what a

book says about these controversial plants is a pretty good indicator of its

objectivity). I like The Herbalist by Meyers – it’s an old book,

illustrated by drawings and tiny watercolors, but the illustrations are

still some of the best. The information should be taken with a grain of

salt, but this book is full of old formulas and recipes for things like

bluing, smoking mixtures, poltices, dyes, dentifrices, etc. etc.

 

I’m sure plenty of others will recommend excellent books, too.

 

 

--

 

 

Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.15.29/607 - Release 12/28/2006

12:31 PM

 

 

 

--

 

 

Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.15.29/607 - Release 12/28/2006

12:31 PM