ATDDTA (6) 160 - 163 dittany and gas

[grladams at teleport.com]

Just going through some books this morning and noticed a couple of things. 
Dittany is also called the Gas Plant. I won't despoil the appearance of the
importance of this word at this point but Notice the transformation of the
quality of the setting when Kit broaches the subject of the sound of
"they.. walking around.. looking for something" when Dittany (with whom
cavorting produces breathlessness) diverts his attention, then again later
when Kit wants to talk to "'Fax to have a word about this matter of his
cousin" everything goes fubar, all becomes well discordant, incongruent,
unresolved phrases, like drunkenness, ... And here's another bit, that
house, for some reason it reminds me of the Winchester mansion,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House which has its own
ghost story.. Worth a trip to San Jose area to see it. 

"Sarah Winchester thought the house was haunted by the ghosts of
individuals killed by Winchester rifles, and that only continuous
construction would appease them" 

and Sara Winchester was as crazy as a bedbug..

factoid about Dittany
"The fragrance arising when you brush your hand across leaf, flower, or
seed of the Gas Plant discloses its relation to the Lemon and Orange. So
heavily is it stored with this citrus oil that on hot days a gas rises that
will give a flash of flame if touched with a match. Hence the name. It is
an old, old garden plant, called Dittany in England...
--The Flower family album by Helen Field Fischer and Gretchen Harshbarger.

another factoid about Dittany
In The encyclopedia of psychoactive plants : ethnopharmacology and its
applications  
Park Street Press, 2005 The exact recipe for Absynthe is given, and one of
the ingredients is Dittany...



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