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The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary ( Latin: ''Agnus scythicus'' or ''Planta Tartarica Barometz'') is a legendary
zoophyte A zoophyte (animal-plant) is an organism thought to be intermediate between animals and plants, or an animal with plant-like attributes or appearance. In the 19th century they were reclassified as Radiata which included various taxa, a term supers ...
of Central Asia, once believed to grow sheep as its fruit. It was believed the sheep were connected to the plant by an umbilical cord and grazed the land around the plant. When all accessible foliage was gone, both the plant and sheep died. Underlying the legend is the
cotton plant ''Gossypium'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Gossypieae of the mallow family, Malvaceae, from which cotton is harvested. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Old and New Worlds. There are about 50 ''Gossypiu ...
, which was unknown in
Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other g ...
before the Norman conquest of Sicily.


Characteristics

Thomas Browne Sir Thomas Browne (; 19 October 160519 October 1682) was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and the esoteric. His writings display a deep curi ...
's '' Pseudodoxia Epidemica'' named it as the ''Boramez''. In Ephraim Chambers' '' Cyclopædia'', Agnus scythicus was described as a kind of
zoophyte A zoophyte (animal-plant) is an organism thought to be intermediate between animals and plants, or an animal with plant-like attributes or appearance. In the 19th century they were reclassified as Radiata which included various taxa, a term supers ...
, said to grow in Tartary, resembling the figure and structure of a lamb. It was also called ''Agnus Vegetabilis'', ''Agnus Tartaricus'' and bore the reported
endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
s of ''Borometz'', ''Borametz'' and ''Boranetz''. In his book, ''The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary'' (1887), Henry Lee describes the legendary lamb as believed to be both a true animal and a living plant. However, he states that some writers believed the lamb to be the fruit of a plant, sprouting forward from melon-like seeds. Others, however, believed the lamb to be a living member of the plant that, once separated from it, would perish. The vegetable lamb was believed to have blood, bones, and flesh like that of a normal lamb. It was connected to the earth by a stem, similar to an umbilical cord, that propped the lamb up above ground. The cord could flex downward, allowing the lamb to feed on the grass and plants surrounding it. Once the plants within reach were eaten, the lamb died. It could be eaten, once dead, and its blood supposedly tasted sweet like honey. Its wool was said to be used by the native people of its homeland to make head coverings and other articles of clothing. The only carnivorous animals attracted to the lamb-plant (other than humans) were wolves.


Possible origins

The Greek historian Herodotus wrote of trees in India "the fruit whereof is a wool exceeding in beauty and goodness that of sheep. The natives make their clothes of this tree-wool." There is mention of a similar plant-animal in Jewish folklore as early as AD 436. This creature, called the Yeduah (, , or ), was like a lamb in form and sprouted from the earth connected to a stem. Those who went hunting the Yeduah could only harvest the creature by severing it from its stem with arrows or darts. Once the animal was severed, it died and its bones could be used in divination and prophetic ceremonies. Lee, 1887 p. 5. An alternative version of the legend tells of the "jeduah", a human-shaped plant-animal connected to the earth from a stem attached to its navel. The jeduah was believed to be aggressive, though, grabbing and killing any creature that wandered too close. Like the Barometz, it too died once severed from its stem. Lee, 1887 p. 6. The Minorite Friar Odoric of Pordenone, upon recalling first hearing of the vegetable lamb, told of trees on the shore of the Irish Sea with gourd-like fruits that fell into the water and became birds called Bernacles. Lee, 1887 p. 11. He is referring to the legendary plant-animal known as the barnacle tree, which was believed to drop its ripened fruit into the sea near the Orkney Islands. The ripened fruit would then release "
barnacle geese The barnacle goose (''Branta leucopsis'') is a species of goose that belongs to the genus ''Branta'' of black geese, which contains species with largely black plumage, distinguishing them from the grey ''Anser'' species. Despite its superficial s ...
" that would live in the water, growing to mature geese. The alleged existence of this fellow plant-animal was accepted as an explanation for migrating geese from the North. In his work ''The Shui-yang or Watersheep and The Agnus Scythicus or Vegetable Lamb'' (1892), Gustav Schlegel points to Chinese legends of the "watersheep" as inspiration for the legend of the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary. Much like the vegetable lamb, the watersheep was believed to be both plant and animal and tales of its existence placed it near Persia. It was connected to the ground by a stem and, if the stem were severed, it would die. The animal was protected from aggressors by an enclosure built around it and by armored men yelling and beating drums. Its wool was also said to be used for fine clothing and headdresses.Schlegel, Gustav. "The Shui-yang or Watersheep and The Agnus Scythicus or Vegetable Lamb". ''Acts of the 8th International Congress of Orientalists''. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1892, p. 23. (In turn, the origin of watersheep is an explanation for sea silk.)


In search of the legend

Earlier versions of the legend tell of the lamb as a fruit, springing from a melon or gourd-like seed, perfectly formed as if born naturally. As time passed, this idea was replaced with the notion that the creature was indeed both a living animal and a living plant. Gustav Schlegel, in his work on the various legends of the vegetable lamb, recounts the lamb being born without its horns, but with two puffs of white, curly hair instead. The 14th century book '' The Travels of Sir John Mandeville'' is credited with bringing the legend to public attention in Europe. It describes a strange gourd-like fruit grown in Tartary. Once ripe, the fruit was cut open, revealing what looked like a lamb in flesh and blood but lacking wool. The fruit and the lamb could then be eaten. Friar Odoric of Friuli, much like Mandeville, travelled extensively and claimed to have heard of gourds in Persia that, when ripe, opened to contain lamb-like beasts. In the Renaissance, the Lamb of Tartary was a frequent object of philosophical and botanical debate. It became an important heuristic to discuss the natural order of things and the Aristotelian scale of beings. the mid-16th century, Sigismund, Baron von Herberstein, who in 1517 and 1526 was the Ambassador to the Emperors Maximilian I and Charles V, presented a much more detailed account of the Barometz in his "Notes on Russia." He claimed to have heard from too many credible sources to doubt the lamb’s existence and gave the location of the creature as being near the Caspian Sea, between the Jaick and Volga rivers. The creature grown from the melon-like seeds described was said to grow to two and half feet high (80 cm), resembling a lamb in most ways except a few. It was said to have blood, but not true flesh as it more closely resembled that of a crab. Unlike a normal lamb, its hooves were said to be made of parted hair. It was the favourite food of wolves and other animals. Lee, 1887 p. 12. In 1698 Sir Hans Sloane claimed a Chinese tree fern, ''
Cibotium barometz ''Cibotium barometz'', the barometz, golden chicken fern or woolly fern, is a species of tree fern native to parts of China and to the western part of the Malay Peninsula. The fern's woolly rhizome was thought to be the inspiration for the mythi ...
'', was the origin of the myth. Sloane found the specimen in a Chinese cabinet of curiosities he acquired. The "lamb" is produced by removing the leaves from a short length of the fern's woolly
rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...
. When the rhizome is inverted, it fancifully resembles a woolly lamb with the legs being formed by the severed petiole bases. The German scholar and physician Engelbert Kaempfer accompanied an embassy to Persia in 1683 with the intention of locating the lamb. After speaking with native inhabitants and finding no physical evidence of the lamb-plant, Kaempfer concluded it to be nothing but legend. However, he observed the custom of removing an unborn lamb from its mother’s womb in order to harvest the soft wool and believed the practice to be a possible source of the legend. He speculated further that museum specimens of the fetal wool could be mistaken for a vegetable substance.


In poetry

In Dr.
Erasmus Darwin Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 173118 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor, and poet. His poems ...
’s work ''
The Botanic Garden ''The Botanic Garden'' (1791) is a set of two poems, ''The Economy of Vegetation'' and ''The Loves of the Plants'', by the British poet and naturalist Erasmus Darwin. ''The Economy of Vegetation'' celebrates technological innovation and scien ...
'' (1781), he writes of the Borametz:
E'en round the Pole the flames of love aspire, And icy bosoms feel the secret fire, Cradled in snow, and fanned by Arctic air, Shines, gentle borametz, thy golden hair Rooted in earth, each cloven foot descends, And round and round her flexile neck she bends, Crops the grey coral moss, and hoary thyme, Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime; Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam, And seems to bleat – a vegetable lamb
Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544, in Monfort – July 1590, in Mauvezin) was a Gascon Huguenot courtier and poet. Trained as a doctor of law, he served in the court of Henri de Navarre for most of his career. Du Bartas was celebrated acro ...
writes of the vegetable lamb in his poem ''La Semaine'' (1587). In the poem, Adam wanders the Garden of Eden and is amazed by the peculiarity of the creature. Joshua Sylvester translates: Lee, 1887 p. 18.
But with true beasts, fast in the ground still sticking Feeding on grass, and th' airy moisture licking, Such as those Borametz in Scythia bred Of slender seeds, and with green fodder fed; Although their bodies, noses, mouths, and eyes, Of new-yeaned lambs have full the form and guise, And should be very lambs, save that for foot Within the ground they fix a living root Which at their navel grows, and dies that day That they have browzed the neighboring grass away. Oh! Wondrous nature of God only good, The beast hath root, the plant hath flesh and blood. The nimble plant can turn it to and fro, The nummed beast can neither stir nor goe, The plant is leafless, branchless, void of fruit, The beast is lustless, sexless, fireless, mute: The plant with plants his hungry paunch doth feede, Th' admired beast is sowen a slender seed.
In his work ''Connubia Florum, Latino Carmine Demonstrata'' (1791), Dr. De la Croix writes of the vegetable lamb (translated):
For in his path he sees a monstrous birth, The Borametz arises from the earth Upon a stalk is fixed a living brute, A rooted plant bears quadruped for fruit, …It is an animal that sleeps by day And wakes at night, though rooted in the ground, To feed on grass within its reach around.


Cultural references

* Denis Diderot wrote an article about the vegetable lamb, ''agnus scythicus'', in the first edition (1751) of the '' Encyclopédie''. After describing the purely vegetable nature of the so-called lamb, he noted: "This article will give us the occasion to express more useful ideas against superstition and prejudice than merely to question the usefulness of the Scythian lamb as a cure for spitting blood." * In the popular manga series '' Monster Musume'', the characters Cott and Ton are portrayed as anthropomorphized Barometz. * In the video game '' Odin Sphere'', the heroes can plant Barometz seeds and harvest sheep from them for hit point replenishment and recipes. * The manga ''
Delicious in Dungeon is a Japanese fantasy manga, fantasy comedy ''seinen manga, seinen'' manga series written and illustrated by . The series is published in Enterbrain's ''Harta (magazine), Harta'' magazine. Yen Press has licensed the series in North America. An ...
'' depicts a Barometz plant whose fruit naturally grows into the shape of a sheep. * In the 18th episode of '' Little Witch Academia'' anime series, characters Constanze and Akko require a Barometz plant for the development of the Stanship Mecha


See also

*
Vegetable sheep ''Raoulia'' is a genus of New Zealand plants in the tribe Gnaphalieae within the family Asteraceae. Many ''Raoulia'' species grow in alpine areas, forming very fine and dense growths. These compact growths form large amorphous cushion-like masse ...
*
Legendary creature A legendary creature (also mythical or mythological creature) is a type of fictional entity, typically a hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses ...


References


External links

* The travels of Sir John Mandeville, 1900 reprint * The vegetable lamb of Tartary; a curious fable of the cotton plant. To which is added a sketch of the history of cotton and the cotton trade. Henry Lee, 1826-1888
The History of Herodotus
*{{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130815002439/http://www.nal.usda.gov/pgdic/Probe/v2n3/legend.html, date=August 15, 2013, title=Legend of the Lamb-Plant

to Sir
Thomas Browne Sir Thomas Browne (; 19 October 160519 October 1682) was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and the esoteric. His writings display a deep curi ...
, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, III.28
Agnus scythicus
(Natural history. Botany) Medieval European legendary creatures Mythological caprids Mythological hybrids Mythological plants