| Title: | Adonis |
| Original Title: | Adonis |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 1 (1751), p. 142 |
| Author: | Denis Diderot (biography) |
| Translator: | Ann-Marie Thornton [Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey] |
| Subject terms: |
Gardening
|
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Source: | Russell, Terence M. and Anne Marie Thornton. Gardens and landscapes in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert : the letterpress articles and selected engravings. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999. Used with permission. |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0001.719 |
| Citation (MLA): | Diderot, Denis. "Adonis." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Ann-Marie Thornton. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2013. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0001.719>. Trans. of "Adonis," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 1. Paris, 1751. |
| Citation (Chicago): | Diderot, Denis. "Adonis." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Ann-Marie Thornton. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0001.719 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Adonis," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1:142 (Paris, 1751). |
Adonis , a type of ranunculus, of which the leaves look like chamomile leaves and the flowers like roses. [1]
Its seeds are enclosed in oblong capsules.
There are two sorts.
Ray attributes to the seeds of Adonis hortensis, flore minore, atro, rubente, the property of relieving stones and colic. [2]
Moreover, when mixed with those of Adonis ellebori radice, buphtalmi flore, the seeds may be substituted for hellebore, even in medicinal compositions. [3]
Notes
1. Adonis, like Ranunculus, is a genus of the Ranunculaceae (buttercup) family and, like chamomile, has feathery leaves. The name ‘adonis’ is a hellenized form of the Semitic ‘adonai’ meaning ‘my Lord’ and is thought to derive from the handsome youth of Greek mythology, who was venerated as a god of agriculture by the Semitic Phoenicians. The ‘adonia’ or Festivals of Adonis were celebrated annually following the harvest, and Adonis annua, also called Adonis autumnalis or pheasant’s eye (each bright red petal having a dark base) is actually unusual in its autumn-flowering habit. Its red flower is sometimes associated with Adonis’ blood; Howatson and Chilvers, 1996, pp. 6-7; Delaporte, 1979, pp. 81-2). See D. J. Mabberley, The Plant-book: a Portable Dictionary of the Vascular Plants (Cambridge, 1997), 13.
2. John Ray (1628-1705) was one of the founders of English classification in botany and zoology, classifying over 18,000 ‘species’ of plants in Ray, 1686-1704. However, the names which he and others gave to plants, of which new species were being continually discovered, were ‘long and often difficult’ (Raven, 1986, p. xii). In Linnaeus, 1751, which was published in the same year as volume I of the Encyclopédie, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-78) put forward binomial plant names with a single epithet for species (Huxley et al., 1992, i.1).
3. There are twenty-six species of Adonis, of which some, such as Adonis vernalis, are medicinal, having the same properties as digitalin. See D. J. Mabberley, The Plant-book: a Portable Dictionary of the Vascular Plants (Cambridge, 1997), 13.