Advertisements for coffee in London in 1657 claimed that the

beverage was a cure for scurvy, gout and other ills.

Arrowroot, an antidote for poisoned arrows, is used as a

thickener in cooking.

Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis

sativa (marijuana) on their plantations.

Ginger has been clinically demonstrated to work twice as well as

Dramamine for fighting motion sickness, with no side effects.

In 1865 opium was grown in the state of Virginia and a product

was distilled from it that yielded 4 percent morphine. In 1867 it

was grown in Tennessee: six years later it was cultivated in

Kentucky. During these years opium, marijuana and cocaine could

be purchased legally over the counter from any druggist.

In the Netherlands, in 1634, a collector paid 1,000 pounds of

cheese, four oxen, eight pigs, 12 sheep, a bed, and a suit of

clothes for a single bulb of the Viceroy tulip.

Morphine was given its name in 1803 by the

discoverer, a 20 year old German pharmacist

named Friedrich Saturner. He named it after

Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams.

No species of wild plant produces a flower or

blossom that is absolutely black, and so far,

none has been developed artificially.

One pound of tea can make 300 cups of the

beverage.

Quinine, one of the most important drugs

known to man, is obtained from the dried

bark of an evergreen tree native to South America.

Tea was so expensive when it was first brought to Europe in the

early 17th century that it was kept in locked wooden boxes.

The California redwood - coast redwood and giant sequoia - are

the tallest and largest living organism in the world.

The largest single flower is the Rafflesia or "corpse flower". They

are generally 3 feet in diameter with the record being 42 inches.

The rose family of plants, in addition to flowers, gives us apples,

pears, plums, cherries, almonds, peaches and apricots.

The world's tallest grass, which has sometimes grown 130 feet

or more, is bamboo.

When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield

consumable fruit.

Willow bark, which provides the salicylic acid from which aspirin

was originally synthesized, has been used as a pain remedy ever

since the Greeks discovered its therapeutic power nearly 2,500

years ago.

Absinthe is another name for the herb wormwood (Artemisia

absinthium) and the name of a licorice-anise flavored green

liqueur that was created at the end of the 18th century, and

manufactured by Henry-Louis Pernod. Called the 'green Muse' it

became very popular in the 19th century, but was eventually

banned in most countries beginning in 1908. The reason is the

presence of the toxic oil 'thujone' in wormwood, which was one

of the main ingredients of Absinthe. Absinthe seemed to cause

brain lesions, convulsions, hallucinations and severe mental

problems. Thujone was the culprit, along with the fact that

Absinthe was manufactured with an alcohol content of 68% or

132 proof

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