Climbing a Tree. Cymbalaria muralis, Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Before Rembrandt's famous painting of an anatomical lesson by Dr Tulp (1632), Michiel van Miereveld (1567-1641) in 1617 painted Dr Willem van der Meer of Delft teaching anatomy. Like Dr Tulp, Van der Meer was also as most doctors of their age professionally interested in plants and their healing powers. It is said (1644) that Van der Meer was so taken with the medicinal value of Ivy-leaved Toadflax that soon after its introduction to the Low Countries from Italy he planted it everywhere in his hometown of Delft. Toadflax quickly covered the town walls and the buildings; a learned author writes that he thinks it will before long be regarded a native plant of these lands.
Here our plant is climbing a Common Catalpa in our Hortus.
I don't know much about Van der Meer but did find that he was regarded an authority on tobacco and its medical value.
There's a correspondence with Van der Meer (1621) that Johannes Neander (c.1590-v.1630) from Bremen published in his book Tabacologia. Whether you can also smoke dried Toadflax?...
Climbing a Tree. Cymbalaria muralis, Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Before Rembrandt's famous painting of an anatomical lesson by Dr Tulp (1632), Michiel van Miereveld (1567-1641) in 1617 painted Dr Willem van der Meer of Delft teaching anatomy. Like Dr Tulp, Van der Meer was also as most doctors of their age professionally interested in plants and their healing powers. It is said (1644) that Van der Meer was so taken with the medicinal value of Ivy-leaved Toadflax that soon after its introduction to the Low Countries from Italy he planted it everywhere in his hometown of Delft. Toadflax quickly covered the town walls and the buildings; a learned author writes that he thinks it will before long be regarded a native plant of these lands.
Here our plant is climbing a Common Catalpa in our Hortus.
I don't know much about Van der Meer but did find that he was regarded an authority on tobacco and its medical value.
There's a correspondence with Van der Meer (1621) that Johannes Neander (c.1590-v.1630) from Bremen published in his book Tabacologia. Whether you can also smoke dried Toadflax?...