MAURICE MESSEGUE'S NATURAL WAY TO HEALTH AND BEAUTY

The plant healer who charmed many (and has cured a number of grey eminences) in his autobiographical Of Men and Plants (1973) writes far more specifically about the latter's life and health-giving properties here (the emphasis is rather on health than beauty), from his garden in Fleurance, Gascony, where he also serves as Mayor. You too should cultiver votre/jardin and vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers all offer more than coffee, tea or pills: there's linden for the nerves, rosemary's not for remembrance but for rheumatism, and that lowly nasturtium is an aphrodisiac. M. Messegue will make jolie laide of the homeliest of us all -- try egg yolk or cream for the skin while chopped cabbage is ""exceptional"" -- or lemon which will whiten your teeth. A quite alluring sheaf of recipes appends along with that thematic maxim -- ""Take nature for your bride."" Not the whole grain sense we've been buying -- surely different and tempting if you apply a little natural elbow grease.