3 h 33 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 3 h 33 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a plant bore a living lamb—and the story travelled farther than the evidence?
In The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, Henry Lee follows a legend that places a strange creature in Central Asia: a lamb growing on a stalk. According to the tale, it bends down to eat the grass around it. When that grass runs out, the lamb dies.
Lee, a Victorian naturalist, asks how such an idea takes root. He traces it through travellers, scholars and doctors, including the writer known as Sir John Mandeville. As the story passes through European books, actual specimens enter the picture. The puzzle shifts from what people repeat to what careful observers can examine.
What you’ll discover
- A creature between worlds Meet the legendary lamb that hangs from a stem and grazes within its reach.
- A tale on the move Follow travellers and scholars as they carry an extraordinary claim across centuries.
- Specimens under scrutiny Discover what happens when doctors and collectors encounter objects presented as the Vegetable Lamb.
- Natural history as detective work Watch Lee treat an old animal fable as a puzzle that observation can untangle.
- The roots of error Explore how a story grows in the telling, and follow Lee toward his own explanation.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you love curious legends, the detective work of tracing a myth to its source, old travellers' tales, or the story of how a humble plant clothed the world.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A lamb grows from a plant
- Trusted witnesses give the tale authority
- Learning does not prevent a mistake
- The search finds only ordinary sheep
- The fern explanation fits too poorly
- Older accounts point toward cotton
- Small additions turn fact into fable
- Cotton moves through trade and conquest
- Look for the fact beneath legend
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The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
by Henry Lee · 1887
A tree in Tartary bursts open to show a living lamb, and learned Europe believes it for centuries.
ChallengingUnder 2 hours to readEnglish
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In short
Imagine a plant that grows a lamb. It is a whole living animal, fixed to a stalk by its navel, bending down to graze the grass around it.
The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 50 min1 h 25 min fast, 2 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 26,000 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1887by Henry Lee
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The fable describes a plant that is also a lamb
The fable has two forms. In the first, a tree grows from a seed like a melon or gourd. When the fruit ripens, it splits open and a small lamb lies inside, perfect in every limb. The people of Tartary are said to weave caps and clothes from its white fleece.
In the second form, the lamb is a living animal joined by its navel to a flexible stem rooted in the soil. The stem bends so the lamb can graze every plant within reach. When the pasture is eaten bare, the stem dries up and the lamb dies. The name Borametz, Lee says, comes from a Tartar word meaning lamb.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1887
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Lee, Henry. The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-vegetable-lamb-of-tartary.
Lee, H. (2026). The vegetable lamb of Tartary. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-vegetable-lamb-of-tartary (Original work published 1887)
Lee, Henry. The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-vegetable-lamb-of-tartary.
@book{lee2026vegetable,
author = {Lee, Henry},
title = {The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-vegetable-lamb-of-tartary},
note = {First published 1887}
}
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What is the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary?
It is a medieval legend of a plant that grows a living lamb, either inside a fruit or on a stalk attached by its navel. It was also called the Scythian Lamb and the Borametz.
What does Henry Lee say the Vegetable Lamb really was?
Lee argues that the legend began with true reports of the cotton plant, whose ripe pod bursts to show white wool. Ancient Greek writers described this wool tree long before the tale of the lamb grew.
What is the Barometz fern, and why does Lee reject it?
It is a tree fern whose hairy rootstock the Chinese shaped into small toy animals. Lee says it grows far from Tartary, was meant as a tan-coloured dog, and has the wrong colour for white fleece.
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