The Voynich Manuscript Decoded? Part II

This is the controversial drawing that Robert Brumbaugh(xv) identified as a sunflower, a plant native to America that would date the V.M. to post 1492(8). I have not deciphered the text from this folio, but have been able to determine from the anagram of oram, the identity of this plant, mora, the Italian for either a blackberry or a mulberry. Although both plants have the same Italian name, blackberries and mulberries belong to different species. Further investigation, mainly based on the shape of the leaves, has led me to conclude that Folio 33v (Figure 8) represents a cloudberry, Rubus chamæmorus, a plant that grows in the bogs of alpine Europe and America. Cloudberries have hand-like leaves on separate stems, white male and female flowers, red berries that become amber when ripe, generally propagate through rhizomes, and can develop extensive berry patches. It is impossible to determine whether the Leonardo drawing, that I have included with Figure 8, represents a cloudberry or a blackberry as the leaves are not shown. It is definitely not a mulberry as the caption in the book indicated since mulberries have male and female flowers resembling small catkins.