This is the picture I use when I publish articles in An Tir's Best Dirt, the newslwtter of the Herbal Guild of An Tir. No, it really isn't very good, but it is a low budget newsletter, afterall!

Some Links to pet pages

Acme Pet's list of Feline Informational Web Pages

More information about pets!

The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA)

A very nice site put together by obviously astute people!

9-Lives

While we leave the topic of cat food to each felines particular taste, one cannot argue about Morris as an exemplar for the species!

Kalaminthe from Dioscorides and Nep or Nepeta cataria from Gerard.

What do Ancient and period herbals say about Nepeta cataria? This is a good question since it's obviously such an important plant.

First we should begin with stressing the importance of the Latin name to indicate which plant we are interested in. After all while there is only one Nepeta cataria, there is a plant called cat-mint that is often mistaken for catnip, but which lacks Nepeta's fine qualities.

Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, Book XIX Chapter 123, included Nepeta among his list of kitchen garden plants. He also comments in Book XIV, Chapter 106, that it is among the kitchen herbs used to make wine.

Part I of William Turner's A New Herball had much to say about catnip, or Calamynte as he calls it. He begins his discussion with reference to Dioscorides. The following are selected passages: #

"Dioscorides maketh three kinds of Calamynte. ...The third kind, as Dioscorides writeth is like unto wild mint, with longer leaves, with greater branches and stalks than the other kinds have. But it hath less strength than the rest. This kind is nowadays called of the apothecaries Nepita, in English Nepe, in Dutch Catz e ncraut, or Katzenmuntes, in French, herbe auchat. The cats commonly where as they can find it in any garden will eat it up, wherefore some call it in English, Catmynt. This herb groweth far from cities and towns, in hedges and in stony grounds. Calamynt i s hot and dry in the third degree. Dioscorides writeth that calamynt groweth in plains, high and rocky places, and in watery places.

The virtues of Calamynt: The leaves of all the kinds of Calamynt are very hot and biting. Calamynt either drunken, or la i d to the place is good for them that are bitten of serpents. The broth of calamynt drunken driveth down women's sickness, and provoketh water, and it helpeth places bruised and bursten and shrunken or drawn together, and them that are shor winded, and the m that are vexed with choler or with shaking. It scoureth away the jaundice. If it be taken aforehand, it withstandeth poison; if it be drunken with salt and honey, it killeth worms in the belly, and that will it do as well raw, as sodden The same herb eaten healeth the common lazars, if they drink whey after the receiving of this same herb, the leaves bruised and laid in wool, and put into the place of conception, draweth down women's sickness. Calamynt either strewed on the ground, or set on fire driv e th away serpents. If it be sodden in wine, it maketh black scars to be white, and taketh away the black colour of bruising. Calamynt is laid unto the sciatica, to draw humours out from the deep bottom, and burneth the outer part of the skin. The juice po u red in one's ears killeth the worms there. Galen sayeth if it be taken in sweet honeyed wine it provoketh a man to sweat, and that some use to seethe this herb in oil and anoint all the body with it to drive away the cold of agues, and that it cutteth in s under gross humours."

John Gerard's The Herball or General History of Plants continued the tradition of Dioscorides and Turner in commenting on Nepeta. In addition to the names of Nep or Cat Mint, Gerard also gives it the Latin name Mentha Felina. These are his comments:

"Cat Mint or Nep groweth high; it bringeth forth stalks aboue a cubit long, cornered, chamfered, and full of branches; the leaves are broad, and nicked in the edges like those of Bawms, or of Horehound, but longer. The flours are of a whitish colour, they partly compass about the uppermost sprigs, and partly grow on the very top, they are set in a manner lik an ear or satkin: the root is diversly parted, and full of strings, and endurith a long time. The whole herbe together with the leaves and stalks is soft, and covered with a white downe....

The Names: The Herbalists do cal it Herba Cattaria, and Herba Catti, because the Cats are very much delighted herewith; for the smel of it is so pleasant to them, that they rub themselves upon it; and wallow or tumble in it, and also feed on the branches and leaves very greedily. It is named of the Apothecaries Nepeta: but Nepeta is properly called (as we have said) wilde Penny-royall: In High Dutch, katzen Muntz: in Low-Dutch, Catte cruiit: in Italian, Gattaria, or herbe Gatta: in Spanish, Yerba Gatera: in English Cat Mint or Nep."

Bibliography

• Dioscorides. The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides. Gunther, Robert (Translator), Hafner Publishing Co. NY., 1959
• Gerard, John: The Herbal, or General History of Plants. The Complete 1633 Edition as revised and Enlarged by Thomas Johnson, Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1975
• Pliny, The Elder: Natural History: With an English Translation. Vols., VI & VII. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, MCMMLXX, (Trans: W. H. S. Jones.)
• Turner, William: A New Herbal, 2 Parts, Edited by George T. L. Chapman and Marilyn N. Twiddle, Cambridge University Press, London, 1989

Reprinted from An Tir's Best Dirt,

A publication of the Herbal Guild of An Tir