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By John Trott
of its flowers.
The Doctrine of Signatures explains away many other wildflower names. Ever wonder about the prevalence of wort in names for plants? Wort is the contemporary spelling of the Old English word for plant, or plant-like, wyrt. My Hepatica with pale blue flowers is often referred to as Liverwort in older books. There is some lack of agreement about when the Doctrine of Signatures emerged in Europe. Was it the 13th or the 16th Century? It is not important -but the idea of the belief is certainly of interest. It was believed that, as Genesis states, God put all plants on earth for man’s use. God also gave us a clue, or placed his signature on the plant to guide us toward its use. Hepatica has liver-shaped leaves so would cure ills of that organ.
A German physician of the 16th century, with the splendid name of Bombastus, wrote: “I have ofttimes declared, how by the outward shapes and qualities of things we may know their inward vertues, which God hath put in them for the good of man.” (Spelling is from Bombastus; it is certainly not mine.) A common late summer plant is named Boneset because its leaves
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