The vegetable lamb

Also known by the Latin name Planta tartaric barometz, the Tartarian lamb plant is a mythological creature, native to Central Asia (from barometz, Tartar for 'lamb').

Like the Mandrake, it is half plant half animal. This fantastic plant, which like fruit produces one or more sheep, cries with a human voice when it is uprooted. Around the borometz, other plants can not survive and when it is cut, it oozes blood-like sap.

The same legend of the 11th century tells how even the cotton wads are tiny sheep, attached to the plant through their umbilical cord. The cotton bush bends to enable the sheep to graze. Once the grass around the sheep is exhausted, the sheep come down from the barometz, leaving the plant to die. This myth, which in the Middle Ages served to explain the existence of cotton, is based on the knowledge of a real fluffy plant, with tap roots, whose scientific name is Polypodium borametz.

The lamb plant is also described by Thomas Browne in the third book of the "Pseudodoxia Epidemica", by Diderot in the article "Agnus Scythicus" in the Encyclopédie, and by Borges and Margarita Guerrero in their "Manual of Fantastic Zoology."

Sir John Mandeville

"Sir John Mandeville" is the name that is claimed by the author of the book, "The Travels of Sir John Mandeville", which appeared for the first time in the Anglo-Norman-French area between 1357 and 1371. The author identifies himself as Sir John Mandeville, a knight, born and raised in England, in the city of St. Albans. It is, however, widely believed that Sir John Mandeville is an imaginary name and that the author may be a certain French Jehan a la Barbe or else the Flemish Benedictine monk Jan de Langhe.

The book, written in 1322, tells of alleged fantastic travels, of an extremely implausible nature. The author claims to have visited the entire world: from Latin countries to Asia Minor, from Ethiopia to India, from Russia to the Holy Land ... Sir John Mandeville had been to Paris and Constantinople, and had served the Sultan of Egypt and the Emperor of China.
He tells how he was offered a princely marriage and a large estate on the condition that he would renounce both his Christian faith and the blessing of the Pope that he had received in Rome.

An extensive analysis of the literature shows that at least part of Mandeville's story is pure invention. Many events have been borrowed from literary sources, interspersed with legends and tales of pilgrims. The narrative is steeped in fiction and extravagance, with monsters, cyclops, cannibals, men with heads growing under their shoulders, a phoenix, and weeping crocodiles.
John Mandeville illustrated the cotton plant (see next page) and described it as follows: "There grew in India a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the ends of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungry".

Translated into many languages, Mandeville's book became extraordinarily popular. It was used as a reference for Christopher Columbus and also strongly influenced Marco Polo in his "The Million".