# Flowers redux *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 21 Jul 1999* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Alice Turner *21 Jul 1999, 23:29* Oh, one thing more. Why, you may ask, am I trying to make something Shakespearean out of what might be an ordinary kitchen herb garden. Well, the clue is rue. Rue simply isn't grown as an herb any more. It's a very bitter herb that I think may still be used to flavor a rather nasty Italian aperitif (could that be Byrrh?). But it was used as a purgative and a plague deterent in Shakespeare's time. And also in witchcraft, possibly as an abortifacent, I think. -alga --- ### Matthew Malthouse *22 Jul 1999, 10:38 · follows Alice Turner* > Alice Turner wrote: > > Oh, one thing more. Why, you may ask, am I trying to make something > Shakespearean out of what might be an ordinary kitchen herb garden. Well, > the clue is rue. Rue simply isn't grown as an herb any more. It's a very > bitter herb that I think may still be used to flavor a rather nasty Italian > aperitif (could that be Byrrh?). But it was used as a purgative and a plague > deterent in Shakespeare's time. And also in witchcraft, possibly as an > abortifacent, I think. Aha! You may not grow rue in your herb garden but some people still do, myself included. I believe that it has a use in aromatherapy an herbal medicine. About the only use I make of it is in pork sausages where it cuts the sweet, fat flavours with its bitter taste. Oh, and it's pretty. :) Matthew ---