History of Monsters. 680. Ulisse Aldrovandi.

In this monstrous plant, then, the leaves are diverse in their placement and shape: for some are wide, others narrow, some notched, others not at all; some hang from a petiole, while others cling directly to the stem; finally, some have attained a perfect form, while others are seen to be poorly shaped. Nature, when hindered by various obstacles, is prone to doing this when producing plants.

We also do not wish to pass over in silence a monstrous leaf found on the *Malus medica*, or citrus tree. The citrus tree—also called the Median, Assyrian, or Hesperian apple after its region of origin—exhibits a variety of fruit in terms of size and flavor. The tree bears fruit perpetually and equals the height of orange and lemon plants; indeed, these three kinds of fruit—citrus, lemon, and orange—used in medical shops belong to a single genus. Their leaves remain green on the tree year-round and differ little or not at all from those of the orange, though they are permeated by tiny holes invisible to the eye, with flexible branches covered in green bark and protected by a bounty of thorns.

Once we understand the correct shape of the leaves of the *Malus medica*, we cannot but assert that the leaf depicted in illustration IV was monstrous, since it differs in every way from the genuine leaf of the Assyrian apple, as the reader can observe.

For it often happens to plants what occurs to animals in the production of twins: just as a double fetus is sometimes fused together in the womb of an animal, so too in plants two leaves are occasionally joined to form a single monstrous one. We can see an example of this here; and although a leaf of Mechoacan is also visible, this was only because the painter had drawn it on the same board and the engraver then carved it.

Now our discussion turns to the monstrous deformity of plant stems. In some plants, the stems grow and broaden to a monstrous degree, just as the fetuses of animals sometimes reach an enormous size. Since monstrous stems have been observed in many different plants, we should begin with the better-known herbs.

There is, then, a certain plant called *kichoriōdēs*, either because it is very similar to chicory or because it is classified among the types of chicory; Dioscorides calls it *seris*, and the Latins call it *Intubus* or *Intubum*, since the stem of this plant is hollow like a tube (*tubus*). From this, the common herbalists, using a corrupted Latin name, call it *Indivia* (Endive), as if it were *Intubia*.

This plant is of two kinds, being divided into domestic and wild Endive. The domestic variety is further divided into two species: the broad-leaved and the narrow-leaved, which has more deeply cut leaves. Similarly, wild endive comprises two species, which are distinguished from the garden varieties by their small seeds and narrow leaves.

Now, among these species, there is one called the "wandering endive" by Pliny, "wild endive" by Gesner in his *Medical Garden*, "wild and narrow-leaved endive" in the *Lyon Herbal*, "sun-follower" (*Solsequium*) by Brunfels, "wild chicory" by Lobelius, Dodonaeus, and Mattioli, "blue chicory" by Tragus, and finally "apothecary's chicory" and "bitter seris" of Dioscorides according to Bauhin. This plant varies in the color of its flower—namely blue, white, or rose—though the specimen we show produced a blue flower. Indeed, the width of this plant’s stem has sometimes been observed to reach four fingers broad, as Dalechamps testifies (cited by Bauhin in his *History of Plants* in the chapter on the Beet). Since this plant has an abundance of material, it often displays monstrous stems. We show a similar monster of the Endive in illustration V, where the stem appears quite wide and compressed—a compression that usually results either from the narrowness of its location or from some object pressing against it.

A similar monstrous plant was found by the Most Illustrious Giovanni Battista Samperio, a Senator of Bologna. To enrich the public museum, he saw to it that it was painted in lifelike colors from both the front and back on July 27, 1637. This was a species of Endive with a blue flower, a very wide stem, and leaves so folded and connected that they seemed to mimic a bird's nest.