Alexander Neckham in De Naturis Rerum wrote about the ideal garden in the 13th Century. He opined, "The garden should be adorned with roses and lilies, the turnsole or heliotrope, violets, and mandrake, there you should have parsley and cost, fennel, southernwood, coriander, sage, savery, hyssop, mint, rue, ditanny, smallage, pellitory, lettuce, garden cress, and peonies. There should also be beds planted with onions, leeks, garlic, pumpkins, and shallots. The cucumber, the poppy, the daffodil, and the brank-ursine out to be in a good garden. There should also be potted herbs, such as beets, herb mercury, orach, sorrel and mallows." Whew!