Edith Sherwood Ph.D. and Erica Sherwood

The Voynich Botanical Plants

Folio 45v Back to Plant List
folio 45v

Folio 45v, Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), is a low growing shrub, native to the Mediterranean and North African Countries. Opposite, linear leaves grow along its many-branched, woody stems. Young shoots from these stems end in blunt spikes of lavender blue flowers. Romans used the flowers as a perfume for their baths. During the Middle Ages gloves were impregnated with lavender to ward off the plague. Fleas, carriers of the plague, dislike the odor.