A compendium of herbs from A to Z, this elegant book pairs Miranda Seymour's insightful essays on herbs with Jane Macfarlane's expertly rendered two-color illustrations. Each piece covers a single herb -- from comfrey, angelica, or woad (three of Miranda's favorites) to the more familiar parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme -- and describes each herb's characteristics, the history of its use, and the myths and beliefs attached to it. The results are often useful, always fascinating, and occasionally very strange. Discover what Homer's Greeks used as sleeping potions and what the Romans took for indigestion, why Henry VIII fined any farmer who refused to grow marijuana, and which herb the seventy-two-year-old queen of Hungary used to extract a proposal from the king of Poland. You can learn which herb is used today to counter chemotherapy's detrimental effects, or the one you can use as shampoo, or to lower your blood pressure, or to stimulate an appetite. A multitude of entertaining literary and historical references abound alongside facts useful for everyday life. The whole book will delight any cook or gardener, and anyone else dedicated to healthy eating or intrigued by ancient lore.