Museum of Garden History History

One of the Museum's most-loved possessions is the Vegetable Lamb. It is an example of the curios collected by people throughout history. The myth of the vegetable lamb was first recorded in an ancient Hebrew book the Talmud Ierosolimitanum written by Rabbi Jochanan in 436AD.

Extract and images from The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary by Henry Lee, 1887 :

Left: The Vegetable Lamb Plant - after Sir John Mandeville, illustrates that version of the fable by which the 'Vegetable Lamb' is represented as contained within a fruit, or seed-pod, which, when ripe, bursts open, and discloses the little lamb within.

Right: Portrait of the 'Barometz' or Scythian Lamb' - after Claude Duret.

'In the course of time the lamb was described but as being a living lamb attached by its navel to a short stem rooted in the earth. The stem, or stalk, on which the lamb was thus suspended above the ground was sufficiently flexible to allow the animal to bend downward, and browze on the herbage within its reach. When all the grass within the length of its tether had been consumed the stem withered and the lamb died. This plant-lamb was reported to have bones, blood, and delicate flesh, and to be a favourite food of wolves, though no other carnivorous animal would attack it. This legend met with almost universal credence from the 13th to the 17th centuries, and, even then, only gave place to an explanation of it as absurd and delusive as itself. The story of a wonderful plant which bore living lambs for its fruit, and grew in Tartary, seems to have been first brought into public notice in England in the reign of Edward III by Sir John Mandeville.'

Left: The 'Barometz', or Tatarian Lamb' - after Joannes Zahn.

Right: The 'Borametz', or Scythian Lamb' - from De la Croix's Connubia Florum. The central figure is a copy of Zahn's picture of the fabulous plant-animal; the other two are taken from fern-root specimens supposed to be 'Vegetable Lambs'.

The following verse is taken from a book printed in the 19th century, entitled Loves of the Plants -

Barometz, The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary

E'en round the Pole the Flames of Love aspire

And icy bosoms feel the secret Fire:

Cradled in Snow and fanned by Arctic Air,

Shines, gentle Barometz ! thy golden Hair,

Rooted in Earth each cloven foot descends

And round and round her flexible Neck she bends;

Crops the grey coral Moss and hoary Thyme,

Or laps with rosy tongue the melting Rime;

Eyes with mute Tenderness her distant Dam,

Or seems to bleat a vegetable Lamb.

The 'Lamb' is in fact the root of a species of fern, Cibotium Barometz, which was sculpted to resemble a lamb (and occasionally a dog). This fern is an arborescent fern with 3-pinnate fronds and measures 1-2 ft broad. It was first introduced into the UK in 1824, from Assam, China, and is best grown in a cool greenhouse.

The Museum's Lamb was encased in a dome c.1850 and was dressed with a bed of dried foliage and twigs.



Top of page MGH Home	One of the Museum's most-loved possessions is the Vegetable Lamb. It is an example of the curios collected by people throughout history. The myth of the vegetable lamb was first recorded in an ancient Hebrew book the Talmud Ierosolimitanum written by Rabbi Jochanan in 436AD. Extract and images from The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary by Henry Lee, 1887 : Left: The Vegetable Lamb Plant - after Sir John Mandeville, illustrates that version of the fable by which the 'Vegetable Lamb' is represented as contained within a fruit, or seed-pod, which, when ripe, bursts open, and discloses the little lamb within. Right: Portrait of the 'Barometz' or Scythian Lamb' - after Claude Duret. 'In the course of time the lamb was described but as being a living lamb attached by its navel to a short stem rooted in the earth. The stem, or stalk, on which the lamb was thus suspended above the ground was sufficiently flexible to allow the animal to bend downward, and browze on the herbage within its reach. When all the grass within the length of its tether had been consumed the stem withered and the lamb died. This plant-lamb was reported to have bones, blood, and delicate flesh, and to be a favourite food of wolves, though no other carnivorous animal would attack it. This legend met with almost universal credence from the 13th to the 17th centuries, and, even then, only gave place to an explanation of it as absurd and delusive as itself. The story of a wonderful plant which bore living lambs for its fruit, and grew in Tartary, seems to have been first brought into public notice in England in the reign of Edward III by Sir John Mandeville.' Left: The 'Barometz', or Tatarian Lamb' - after Joannes Zahn. Right: The 'Borametz', or Scythian Lamb' - from De la Croix's Connubia Florum. The central figure is a copy of Zahn's picture of the fabulous plant-animal; the other two are taken from fern-root specimens supposed to be 'Vegetable Lambs'. The following verse is taken from a book printed in the 19th century, entitled Loves of the Plants - Barometz, The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary E'en round the Pole the Flames of Love aspire And icy bosoms feel the secret Fire: Cradled in Snow and fanned by Arctic Air, Shines, gentle Barometz ! thy golden Hair, Rooted in Earth each cloven foot descends And round and round her flexible Neck she bends; Crops the grey coral Moss and hoary Thyme, Or laps with rosy tongue the melting Rime; Eyes with mute Tenderness her distant Dam, Or seems to bleat a vegetable Lamb. The 'Lamb' is in fact the root of a species of fern, Cibotium Barometz, which was sculpted to resemble a lamb (and occasionally a dog). This fern is an arborescent fern with 3-pinnate fronds and measures 1-2 ft broad. It was first introduced into the UK in 1824, from Assam, China, and is best grown in a cool greenhouse. The Museum's Lamb was encased in a dome c.1850 and was dressed with a bed of dried foliage and twigs.