Species Walafrida polystachya

For Walahfrid Strabo (or Walafrid Strabus) (c 809–849), German monk, poet, politician and theologian, educated at the monastery of the Reichenau on Lake Constance. He became an Abbott and tutored the future King Charles the Bald of the West Franks, moved in high circles, and met many of the leading intellectuals of his age. He wrote many theological works and visionary poems, also a book on gardening called Hortulus, full name Liber de Cultura Hortorum. This medieval work, possibly based on a treatise on agriculture, De re Rustica (Country Matters), by the 1st-century writer Lucius Junius Columella (c 4–70) examines various plants with reference to their mythological, medicinal or Christian value or implications.