Betony. 16th century Italian illustration of betony (Stachys sp.),by Gherardo Cibo,1568. A blue butterfly flies above the scene. Also known as hedgenettle,heal-all,self-heal,woundwort,and lamb's ears,plants of this genus have been used traditionally to treat wounds. This plate is taken from Discorsi on Dioscorides' De Materia Medica by Pietro Andrea Mattioli,a work of herbal medicine first published in Italy in 1554. Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) was an Italian doctor and naturalist who wrote commentaries on De Materia Medica ,an encyclopaedia of herbal medicine by the first century Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides |