Notes

fougere

Rabelais ingorait évidemment le mode de génération à double cycle, l’un asexué, permanent (sores, sporanges, spores) ; l’aultre sexué et transitoire (prothalle, anthéridie + anthérozoïde, archégone + oosphère), qui charactérise les fougères. Sans envisager le mode de reproduction, les anciens botanistes grec décrivaient comme fougère mâle la plus haite, et cujus ex und radice complures exeunt filices (Pline, XXVII, 55), autrement dit notre Pteris aquilina L., et comme fougère femelle ou Thelypteris les fougères de taille plus petite, à frondes multiples entées sur divers points du rhizome (Anthyrion, Polystichon, Blechnon). Une interprétation fautive et à contresens faite par Dodoëns des mots fougère mâle et femelle a entrainé dans la même confusion tous les auteurs moderns. (Paul Delaunay)

fougere

Filicis duo genera. nec florem habent nec semen. pterim vocant Graeci, alii blachnon, cuius ex una radice conplures exeunt filices bina etiam cubita excedentes longitudine, non graves odore. hanc marem existimant. alterum genus thelypterim Graeci vocant, alii nymphaeam pterim, est autem singularis atque non fruticosa, brevior molliorque et densior, foliis ad radicem canaliculata. utriusque radice sues pinguescunt, folia utriusque lateribus pinnata, unde nomen Graeci inposuere. radices utriusque longae in oblicum, nigrae, praecipue cum inaruere. siccari autem eas sole oportet. nascuntur ubique, sed maxime frigido solo. effodi debent vergiliis occidentibus. usus radicis in trimatu tantum, neque ante nec postea. pellunt interaneorum animalia, ex his taenias cum melle, cetera ex vino dulci triduo potae, utraque stomacho inutilissima. alvum solvit primo bilem trahens, mox aquam, melius taenias cum scamonii pari pondere. radix eius pondere duum obolorum ex aqua post unius diei abstinentiam bibitur, melle praegustato, contra rheumatismos. neutra danda mulieribus, quoniam gravidis abortum, ceteris sterilitatem facit. farina earum ulceribus taetris inspergitur, iumentorum quoque in cervicibus. folia cimicem necant, serpentem non recipiunt, ideo substerni utile est in locis suspectis, Usta etiam fugant nidore. fecere medici huius quoque herbae discrimen, optima Macedonica est, secunda Cassiopica.

Ferns are of two kinds, neither having blossom or seed. Some Greeks call pteris, others blachnon, the kind from the sole root of which shoot out several other ferns exceeding even two cubits in length, with a not unpleasant smell. This is considered male. The other kind the Greeks call thelypteris, some nymphaea pteris. It has only one stem, and is not bushy, but shorter, softer and more compact than the other, and channelled with leaves at the root. The root of both kinds fattens pigs. In both kinds the leaves are pinnate on either side, whence the Greeks have named them “pteris” [The Greek πτερόν means “feather”]. The roots of both are long, slanting, and blackish, especially when they have lost moisture; they should, however, be dried in the sun. Ferns grow everywhere, but especially in a cold soil. They ought to be dug up at the setting of the Pleiades. The root must be used only at the end of three years, neither earlier nor later. Ferns expel intestinal worms, tapeworms when taken with honey, but for other worms they must be taken in sweet wine on three consecutive days; both kinds are very injurious to the stomach. Fern opens the bowels, bringing away first bile, then fluid, tapeworms better with an equal weight of scammony. To treat catarrhal fluxes two oboli by weight of the root are taken in water after fasting for one day, with a taste of honey beforehand. Neither fern should be given to women, since either causes a miscarriage when they are pregnant, and barrenness when they are not. Reduced to powder they are sprinkled over foul ulcers as well as on the necks of draught animals. The leaves kill lice and will not harbour snakes, so that it is well to spread them in suspected places; by the smell too when burnt they drive away these creatures. Among ferns also physicians have their preference; the Macedonian is the best, the next best comes from Cassiope [A town in Corcyra].

Notes

two sexes in oak

Taking, as was said, all trees according to their kinds, we find a number of differences. Common to them all is that by which men distinguish the ‘male’ and the ‘female,’ the latter being fruit-bearing, the former barren in some kinds. In those kinds in which both forms are fruit-bearing the ‘female’ has fairer and more abundant fruit; however some call these the ‘male’ trees—for there are those who actually thus invert the names. This difference is of the same character as that which distinguishes the cultivated from the wild tree, while other differences distinguish different forms of the same kind; and these we must discuss, at the same time indicating the peculiar forms, where these are not obvious and easy to recognise.
Take then the various kinds of oak; for in this tree men recognise more differences than in any other. Some simply speak of a cultivated and a wild kind, not recognising any distinction made by the sweetness of the fruit; (for sweetest is that of the kind called Valonia oak, and this they make the wild kind), but distinguishing the cultivated kind by its growing more commonly on tilled land and having smoother timber, while the Valonia oak has rough wood and grows in mountain districts. Thus some make four kinds, others five. They also in some cases vary as to the names assigned; thus the kind which bears sweet fruit is called by some hemeris, by others ‘true oak.’ So too with other kinds. However, to take the classification given by the people of Mount Ida, these are the kinds: hemeris (gall-oak), aigilops (Turkey-oak), ‘broad-leaved’ oak (scrub oak), Valonia oak, sea-bark oak, which some call ‘straight-barked’ oak. All these bear fruit; but the fruits of Valonia oak are the sweetest, as has been said; second to these those of hemeris (gall-oak), third those of the ‘broad-leaved’ oak (scrub oak), fourth sea-bark oak, and last aigilops (Turkey-oak), whose fruits are very bitter. However the fruit is not always sweet in the kinds specified as such; sometimes it is bitter, that of the Valonia oak for instance. There are also differences in the size shape and colour of the acorns. Those of Valonia oak and sea-bark oak are peculiar; in both of these kinds on what are called the ‘male’ trees the acorns become stony at one end or the other; in one kind this hardening takes place in the end which is attached to the cup, in the other in the flesh itself. Wherefore, when the cups are taken off, we find a cavity like the visceral cavities in animals.

chesnes

Le chêne a des fleurs màle et femelles distinctes, mais portés sur le méme pied (monœcie). Pline, qui distingue à tort un chêne mâle et femelle, ecrit « In querna, aia [glans] dulcior molliorque feminæ ; mari spissior », XVI, 8. (Paul Delaunay)

chesnes

sed et in alia dulcior molliorque feminae, mari spissior. maxime autem probantur latifoliae ex argumento dictae: distant inter se magnitudine et cutis tenuitate, item quod aliis subest tunica robigine scabra aliis protinus candidum corpus

But also in the case of the oak in general the acorn of the female tree is sweeter and softer, while that of the male tree is more compact.

Male and female

Squaring the circle to make the sexes one whole. From Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens, 1617.

Notes

Two sexes

Some Critticks will perhaps my writing tax
With falshood, and maintaine their shirts are flax,
To such as those, my answer shall be this,
That Flax the male and Hemp the female is,
And their engendring procreatiue seed
A thousand thousand helpes for man doth breed.
And as a man by glauncing vp his eye
Sees in the aire a flocke of wilde Geese flye :
And ducke, and woodcocks, of both sexes be
Though men doe name but one, for breuity.

deux sexes

On voit que Rabelais connoissoit les deux sexes des plantes; mais qu’il parle ice du chanvre comme le peuple, qui appelle mâle le pied qui porte la graine, parcequ’il a une tête plus grosse que le chanvre qu’il appelle femelle, tandis que c’est le contraire.

deux sexes

Rabelais reconnoissoit les deux sexes chez les plantes; mais il suit l’opinion vulgaire en prenant pour le mâle la femelle qui porte la graine.

deux sexes

On a attribué à tort à Rabelais le mérite d’avoir parlé le premier de la sexualité chez les plantes. Si Aristote écrit que les végétaux mâles ne se distinguent point des végétaux femelles, par contre Théophraste écrit : « Arborum universarum… plures sane differentiæ intelliguntur… qua foemina masque distinguuntur » (Hist. Plant. III, 9). Et Pline parle couramment d’espèces mâle et femelles. Encore faut-il noter que ces mots, dans la langue des anciens botanistes, ne caractérisent le sexe que pour les plantes dioïques (palmier, figuier), Autrement, ils désignent seulement certaines différences morphologiques : mas signifie géneralement fort, vigoureux, ou moins fécond; foemina, faible; ou plus fécond. Ces mots s’inspirent encore de la similitude de certains végétaux avec les organes sexuels animaux; ou enfin ils constituent un simple expédient de nomenclature. Cf. Saint-Lager, Remarques hist. sur les mots plantes mâle et plantes femelles, Paris, Baillière, 1884, 48 p. in-8°. — Rabelais n’a certainement pas approfondi cette question, encore non résolue de son temps. Césalpin nie l’existence d’organes sexuels chez les plantes. Clusius est le premier à soupçonneur leur rôle.
Si Rabelais a véritablement voulu parler de la sexualité végeetale, la liste des plante qu’il donne comme pourvues de sexes distincts (dioïques) n’est pas impeccable, puisqu’elle range à côté du chanvre, du palmier, du térébinthe (dioïques), le chêne, l’yeuse, le cyprès (monoïques), le laurier, l’asphodèle, la mandragore, l’aristoloche, le pouliot, la pivoine (hermaphrodites), sans compter l’agaric qui a un mode de reproduction asexuè et les fougères, dont la génération compliquée ne fut élucidée qu’au XIXe siècle par Lesczyc-Suminsky et Hofmeister. (Paul Delaunay)

two sexes

8. Taking, as was said, all trees according to their kinds, we find a number of differences. Common to them all is that by which men distinguish the ‘male’ and the ‘female,’ the latter being fruit-bearing, the former barren in some kinds. In those kinds in which both forms are fruit-bearing the ‘female’ has fairer and more abundant fruit; however some call these the ‘male’ trees—for there are those who actually thus invert the names. This difference is of the same character as that which distinguishes the cultivated from the wild tree, while other differences distinguish different forms of the same kind; and these we must discuss, at the same time indicating the peculiar forms, where these are not obvious and easy to recognise.…
9. The differences between other trees are fewer; for the most part men distinguish them merely according as they are ‘male’ or ‘female,’ as has been said, except in a few cases including the fir; for in this tree they distinguish the wild and the cultivated kinds, and make two wild kinds, calling one the ‘fir of Ida’ (Corsican pine) the other the ‘fir of the sea-shore’ (Aleppo pine); of these the former is straighter and taller and has thicker leaves, while in the latter the leaves are slenderer and weaker, and the bark is smoother and useful for tanning hides, which the other is not. Moreover the cone of the seaside kind is round and soon splits open, while that of the Idaean kind is longer and green and does not open so much, as being of wilder character. The timber of the seaside kind is stronger,—for one must note such differences also between trees of the same kind, since it is by their use that the different characters are recognised.
The Idaean kind is, as we have said, of straighter and stouter growth, and moreover the tree is altogether more full of pitch, and its pitch is blacker sweeter thinner and more fragrant when it is fresh; though, when it is boiled, it turns out inferior, because it contains so much watery matter. However it appears that the kinds which these people distinguish by special names are distinguished by others merely as ‘male’ and ‘female.’ The people of Macedonia say that there is also a kind of fir which bears no fruit whatever, in which the ‘male’ (Aleppo pine) is shorter and has harder leaves, while the ‘female’ (Corsican pine) is taller and has glistening delicate leaves which are more pendent. Moreover the timber of the ‘male’ kind has much heart-wood, is tough, and warps in joinery work, while that of the ‘female’ is easy to work, does not warp, and is softer.
This distinction between ‘male’ and ‘female’ may, according to the woodmen, be said to be common to all trees. Any wood of a ‘male’ tree, when one comes to cut it with the axe, gives shorter lengths, is more twisted, harder to work, and darker in colour; while the ‘female’ gives better lengths. For it is the ‘female’ fir which contains what is called the aigis; this is the heart of the tree; the reason being that it is less resinous, less soaked with pitch, smoother, and of straighter grain.

sexe des plantes

[Pantagruel] commenca à armer ses navires et il y fit notamment charger une grande quantité de l’herbe pantagruélion. Qu’est-ce que cette herbe pantagruélion? A en juger par la description que Rabelais nous en fait, s’est le chanvre. En quatre chapitres, l’autheur en définit les caractères, en expose les divers usages, en exalte les propriétés, en recommande les vertus. Et, dans ce morceau qui termine son troisième livre, il se montre botaniste exant autant qu’enthousiaste. Ce grand homme peut être cité parmi les créateurs de la botanique, car, le premier, il eut quelque idée du sex des plantes.

deux sexes

Les notions botaniques de R. sont, naturellement, celles de son temps. Mais cf. C. Estienne, Praedium rusticum, Paris, 1554, 436: «Mas ex flos versicolorium parit semen et oleosum: foemina albo est flore, marisque sterilitatem compensat.» [Male flower from seed and produces colored oily substance: the female is white flower, and air and sea compensates sterility.]

deux sexes

On trouve dans Cœlius Rhodiginus, Antiquae Lectiones, XX, 34, une large discussion sur la sexualité des végétaux. Un certain nombre de ses examples se retrouvent dans Rabelais. Le cas du palmier est particulièrement classique: c’est pour l’introduire que Pline, XIII, 4, fait cette remarque générale: «Tout ceux qui se sont estudiez à rechercher les secrets de Nature, disent qu’en tous les arbres, mesmes toutes choses qui procedent de la terre, y a masle et femelle.»

sexualité des végétaux

Arboribus, immo potius omnibus quae terra gignat herbisque etiam utrumque esse sexum diligentissimi naturae tradunt, quod in plenum satis sit dixisse hoc in loco, nullis tamen arboribus manifestius. mas in palmite floret, femina citra florem germinat tantum spicae modo. utrisque autem prima nascitur pomi caro, postea lignum intus; hoc est semen eius: argumentum quod parvae sine hoc reperiuntur in eodem palmite. est autem oblongum, non ut olivis orbiculatum, praeterea caesum a dorso pulvinata fissura, et in alvo media plerisque umbilicatum: inde primum spargitur radix.… cetero sine maribus non gignere feminas sponte edito nemore confirmant, circaque singulos plures nutare in eum pronas blandioribus comis; illum erectis hispidum adflatu visuque ipso et pulvere etiam reliquas maritare; huius arbore excisa viduvio2 post sterilescere feminas. adeoque est veneris intellectus ut coitus etiam excogitatus sit ab homine e maribus flore ac lanugine, interim vero tantum pulvere insperso femin

The most devoted students of nature report that trees, or rather indeed all the products of the earth and even grasses, are of both sexes, a fact which it may at this place be sufficient to state in general terms, although in no trees is it more manifest than in the palm. A male palm forms a blossom on the shoot, whereas a female merely forms a bud like an ear of corn, without going on to blossom. In both male and female, however, the flesh of the fruit forms first and the woody core afterwards; this is the seed of the tree—which is proved by the fact that small fruits without any core are found on the same shoot…
For the rest, it is stated that in a palm-grove of natural growth the female trees do not produce if there are no males, and that each male tree is surrounded by several females with more attractive foliage that bend and bow towards him; while the male bristling with leaves erected impregnates the rest of them by his exhalation and by the mere sight of him, and also by his pollen; and that when the male tree is felled the females afterwards in their widowhood become barren. And so fully is their sexual union understood that mankind has actually devised a method of impregnating them by means of the flower and down collected from the males, and indeed sometimes by merely sprinkling their pollen on the females.

deux sexes

Cette particularité était connue des Anciens. Une partie des exemples cités par Rabelais est estimée inexacte par les botanixtes d’aujourd’hui.

deux sexes

Pour les erreurs de Rabelais sur la sexualité des diverses plantes citées, voir Tier livre, éd. Lefranc, p. 342–344.

mercury, girl’s

Etymology:  < the genitive of girl n. + mercury n. (compare mercury n. 10), so called on account of the plant's supposed property of inducing the generation of female children. Compare Hellenistic Greek θηλυγόνον ( > classical Latin thēlygonon (Pliny)), use as noun (short for ϕύλλον θηλυγόνον ) of neuter of θηλυγόνος promoting the conception of females (compare quot. 1578).
 
The male of either of two plants of the genus Mercurialis, M. tomentosa and M. annua, formerly supposed to have the property of inducing the generation of female children.