From Agar to Zenry: A Book of Plant Uses, Names, and Folklore

From the front flap of this 152-page book: "'From Agar to Zenry' describes the amazing variety of plant uses through the ages, from herbal remedies and country recipes to the often surprising uses of plants in medicine and industry today. The author also explores the validity of traditional beliefs and folklore about plants and trees, traces the origin of plant names and recalls some of the woodland crafts such as bodging and charcoal burning now almost forgotten. He recalls too the 'green-cunning' of his great-grandmother, a great scourer of woodlands, hedgerows and sea shore, who loved the countryside and treated it as larder and medicine chest. Delightfully illustrated with line-and-wash drawings by Carole Pugh, this truly eye-opening book includes much that is unfamiliar and intriguing, ranging from agars and algins (the seaweed extracts so vital in our consumer age) to zenry (the West Country name for charlock)