This translation of a twelfth-century Latin manuscript, recently discovered in a church near Tring, describes some of the edible plants that were widely believed to roam Europe during the Middle Ages.

The BISHOP BEETROOT is a bishop from the neck to the navel, but has the posterior of a beetroot and the head of a truffle, wherefore it should not be eaten on fast days. This legume is said to be the issue of a bishop's mistress who fornicated with a beetroot, in defiance of holy law, which is very strange. Therefore keep away from women, all ye bishops.

The BORAGE, and this can be seen by many, is an apple that turns itself into a cabbage. For this reason it is much hated by cidermakers. Moreover if a woman who is with child steps over one, she is sure to miscarry. Borages are sometimes used to make porridge, from which they derive their name. When one borage is eaten, then all the others weep, and so too will there be wailing and gnashing of teeth at the Last Judgment.

The FENNELWYVERN feeds on stinking excrement. So called because it inhabits the fens, it uses its stalks as legs, and its bulb to rain blows upon its prey. It is very hard to catch, being so wild that no man dare approach it, but in the presence of a virgin it will become tame, and permit itself to be boiled in wine with cinnamon and aloes. Therefore remain virgins, all ye women, for this will be useful should you ever encounter a fennelwyvern.

The GALINGALE is found in Ethiopia and issues from a union between a greengage and a nightingale. I have heard that if a man is sure always to carry a sprig of galingale, and his wife some hazelwort, they will agree between them all their lives, but if a man carries hazelwort and his wife galingale, their days will be full of misery, though some say it is the other way around.

The MANDRAKE has roots like the feet of a man. It screams when uprooted, and makes a pleasing although noisy salad. Should you find your wife making philtres of mandrake that enable her to fly cackling through the air, then she is a witch, and verily she should be cast into fire.

The MEDULLA, or marrow, is ten times larger than a hippopotamus, and lives on the bank of the Nile. It detests camels. In the Hyperborean regions, a man once sought to train parsnips to hunt medullas, but without success. Like mice, medullas are born without feet, and just so are men unable to walk in the path of righteousness until they receive God's grace.

The MER-ONION is rightly called the onion of the sea. The Scythians eat this plant when they are very hungry. We know from Aristotle that it is a slow swimmer, and that when dead it turns into watercress.

The PERIDEXION grows in a tree in India. Sowthistles often gather in the peridexion tree because there they are safe from the giant radish, which fears the shadow of the peridexion tree and stays on the unshaded side of it. In the same way, those who hide from God's light will be devoured by the Devil, who is as big and red as a giant radish.

The SAMPHIRE is the offspring of a sapphire and a salamander, and is tasty when pickled. It is sometimes called the sea asparagus, because it lives in the sea, but once one came onto land in Iceland for several days, and was even made king of that country. It's worst enemy is the amberfish, as is well known. The appearance of white samphires is a good augury, but not so of black ones, and just in this way, good people are always welcome, but the wicked are shunned.

The SHALLOT knows how to take on the form of a beautiful sheep whose singing lures men to their deaths. This sound, once heard, can never be forgotten. Sheep who are truly shallots can be identified by the fact they are always crying. Being pelted with their dung during Lent is a cure for plague, or so says a man I met in Nottingham.

The TAROT is a paltry shrub that protects itself by changing into a hedgehog at will. It has cloven hooves and the head of a cauliflower. Moreover there is a stone in one of its florets that, if placed under the tongue of a dog, predicts whether or not the creature will bite you.

The VEGETABLE LAMB, called also the Scythian lamb, grows head-downward from a tree. The Lord our Savior was also a Lamb on the cross, although he did not hang head-downward. However our Lord's cry to us, namely that we should follow him along the path of righteousness, can never be forgotten. And yet our Lord is not a vegetable, this being the point of allegory, that likenesses and unlikenesses are mingled, to the confusion of the unlearned. Therefore you should not think too much about these things, lest you be led astray.

The WILD CELERY is eaten only for the moving of the bowels. Also, a salve made from it mixed with the venom of a wolf is sovereign for all dimness of the eyes.

The ZIEBA TREE supports in its lower branches a nest of bare-bosomed men and women who are lost in their own fantasy, contemplating all things seen and unseen. Just so do certain cursed men and women drift off into reveries about prodigious vegetables, when should they not rather be worshipping the Lord our God? Therefore repent ye of frivolous reading, but instead go forth to battle against the darkness.