Museum Tradescantianum - the 1st Catalogue

Vegetable Lamb

John Tradescant, the younger, worked with a lawyer Elias Ashmole to prepare a catalogue of the Collection.

One of the objects was the vegetable lamb. The myth of the vegetable lamb was first known in the Middle and Far East in the 11th century; with its 'body and four legs' it resembled a small lamb and it was thought that it was half plant, half animal. It lived its life tethered to the plant and died when it ran out of grazing.

In fact, it is the root of a species of fern - an example can be seen in the Museum of Garden History in Lambeth, where the Tradescant Tomb can also be seen.