Zoophyte  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

"Amongst the curious myths of the Middle Ages none were more extravagant and persistent than that of the "Vegetable Lamb of Tartary," known also as the "Scythian Lamb," and the "Borametz," or "Barometz," the latter title being derived from a Tartar word signifying "a lamb." This "lamb" was described as being at the same time both a true animal and a living plant. According to some writers this composite "plant-animal" was the fruit of a tree which sprang from a seed like that of a melon, or gourd; and when the fruit or seed-pod of this tree was fully ripe it burst open and disclosed to view within it a little lamb, perfect in form, and in every way resembling an ordinary lamb naturally born." --The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary (1887) by Henry Lee

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

A zoophyte is an animal that visually resembles a plant. An example is a sea anemone. The name is obsolete in modern science.

Zoophytes are common in medieval and renaissance era herbals, notable examples including the Tartar Lamb, a plant which grew sheep as fruit. Zoophytes appeared in many influential early medical texts, such as Dioscorides's De Materia Medica and subsequent adaptations and commentaries on that work, notably Mattioli's Discorsi. Zoophytes are frequently seen as medieval attempts to explain the origins of exotic, unknown plants with strange properties (such as cotton, in the case of the Tartar Lamb). Reports of zoophytes continued into the seventeenth century and were commented on by many influential thinkers of the time period, including Francis Bacon. It was not until 1646 that claims of zoophytes began to be concretely refuted, and skepticism towards claims of zoophytes mounted throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. However, the term was still used by Georges Cuvier in his Le Règne Animal in 1817, as the title of one of his four divisions of the animal kingdom.

Other cultures

In the Eastern cultures such as Ancient China fungi were classified as plants in the Traditional Chinese Medicine texts, and cordyceps, and in particular Ophiocordyceps sinensis were considered zoophytes.

In popular culture

On an episode of The Bob Newhart Show, the lovable yet befuddled Howard uses the word "zoophyte" during a game of Scrabble for a triple-word score. Although he incorrectly defines the word as "a fight between two or more animals in a zoo," he spells it correctly and wins the game.

In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by 19th century science fiction author Jules Verne, the term is used many times when describing the sea-life seen by the passengers.

Linking in as of 2022

Alcyone and Ceyx, Alphonse Trémeau de Rochebrune, Andrew Sinclair (botanist), Animal, Cavalier-Smith's system of classification, Charles Wilkes, Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Krauss, Copepod, Edmond Perrier, Eiconaxius andamanensis, F. W. L. Thomas, François Marie Daudin, Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, James Dwight Dana, Le Règne Animal, Life, List of words with the suffix -ology, Louis Édouard Gourdan de Fromentel, Louis Germain, Mill Hill Chapel, Radiata, Richard Quiller Couch, Thomas Hincks (naturalist), Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, William Barnard Clarke (physician)





Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Zoophyte" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools