Ghost Image by Ellen Crosby

Author:Ellen Crosby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner

12

“One final thing before we go inside,” Zara said. “I nearly forgot that I promised to tell you about Hyssopus officinalis. Let’s walk back over to the Garden of World Medicine.”

“Was that the pressed plant inside Kevin’s book?” I asked.

She smiled. “I see you found it.”

“Yes, but found what, exactly?”

We walked across the spongy grass, back to the Western European medicinal plants. “As you know, John Fairbairn told Francis Pembroke that the plant he believed was Hyssopus, or hyssop, as we call it today, was wrongly labeled. In actual fact, it was another kind of hyssop.”

“Water hyssop,” I said.

“That’s right.” Zara looked surprised. “You’ve done some research. But water hyssop goes by the Latin genus name of Bacopa and it’s best known for its memory-enhancing properties. It grows in wet places—on pond edges, muddy shores, lakes, that sort of environment. And it favors warm or tropical climates. It’s not the same thing at all as Hyssopus officinalis. The plant that was pressed between the pages of Kevin’s copy of Adam in Eden came from the genus Bacopa.”

“So Pembroke was right?”

“It would seem he was, but Kevin did some checking and learned that particular species is extinct. In fact he half jokingly named it Bacopa lewisia extinctus.”

“I get extinctus,” I said. “And lewisia for Meriwether Lewis?”

Zara nodded. “If you discover a plant, then you are allowed to name it. Karl Linnaeus, who visited this garden when Philip Miller was the curator, supposedly named plants for his friends and weeds for his enemies.”

I smiled. “How did Kevin learn that the plant was extinct? Did he bring it here to you?”

“Not to me,” she said. “I’m sure Alastair helped him. I know Kevin made a trip to Wakehurst.”

“Who is Alastair and what is Wakehurst?”

“Wakehurst Place is a rather splendid, rather old estate in Sussex, about forty miles south of London. The Millennium Seed Bank, which is part of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, is located on the property. It’s an immense seed storage facility staffed by an international group of scientists. Their goal is to collect seeds from as many plants as possible throughout the world, to preserve them for future generations before the plants become extinct.” Her mouth twisted in a smile. “To avoid more lewisias.”

“And Alastair?”

“Dr. Alastair Innes. Brilliant man. He’s in charge of the department of seed conservation. He would have been able to look at the DNA of the plant specimen Kevin brought him.”

“I’d like to talk to him,” I said. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to share his phone number or an e-mail address?”

“I’ll give you his details when we go inside.”

The wind had picked up and another seagull screeched overhead. By now it was probably well past five o’clock. At home it would be dusk. Here it was still bright, although the sunless milky light had thickened as though a gauze curtain had fallen over the garden.

Zara pointed to a tidy row of beds designated for pharmaceutical plants. “The plants you see here are used in modern medicines.

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