The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary: A Curious Fable of the Cotton Plant. To Which Is Added a Sketch of the History of Cotton and the Cotton Trade

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"The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary: A Curious Fable of the Cotton Plant" by Henry Lee is a historical account written in the late 19th century. The book explores the mythical legend of the "Vegetable Lamb," which was believed to be a hybrid of plant and animal that bore living lambs as fruit. Lee aims to trace the origins of this fable and connect it to the actual cotton plant, elucidating the misconceptions that prevailed in the Middle Ages. At the start of the book, the author introduces the fable of the "Vegetable Lamb," providing detailed descriptions of this mythological entity as well as its various iterations, including its depiction as both fruit-bearing tree-lambs and living lambs tethered to the ground. Lee discusses how these stories evolved and propagated, starting from ancient historical accounts through the interpretations of medieval writers, leading to what he argues is a distortion of a true botanical phenomenon—namely, the cotton plant. Through this initial chapter, he establishes a foundation for analyzing the interplay between truth, folklore, and the evolution of the myths surrounding the origins of cotton in Western Europe.