Vivi wandered away from the wall without a word to Vickers or his little group of fangirls. There were too many people for her to wander really comfortably, which was a shame because one should NEVER crowd a good wander with grabby-handed firsties and lovestricken older students who would rather flutter over a flowering shrub than get their hands dirty.

So Said Genevieve. So say we all.

She crouched near the first plant, but it wasn't one she immediately recognized... and its neighbor was. Like an awesome blue hermit crab, she scuttled sideways to examine the little herb. So happy and leafy and green, and the smell... yup. Her mother and Alena had spent an entire summer canning salsas of varying degrees of spiciness, and they'd used plenty of this herb.

Coriander. Cilantro.

She pulled out her parchment and sketched the form of the table before adding in the first entry:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Text for now

Plant: Coriander (also Cilantro)
Appearance: Up to 50 cm tall, leaves are variable in shape and feathery
Usable parts: All parts, specifically fresh leaves and dried seeds
Uses: Cooking, preservative, calming agent, diuretic and digestive aid

Seri was completely sure Lex's answer from earlier was right. Afterall, the Professor seemed to like it. She would write down the definition later. Yep. Whe the Professor gal told them to wander off, Seri followed Lex. "What were ypu saying about dragons and eaten students, Lex?" Seri asked with furrowe brows, and in a completely serious tone. And she hoped Lex had some idea what was going on, because Seri was lost. She didn't know what a herb LOOKED like, let alone any names. That's why she had Lex. Lex had reliable sources, so she'd know everything. RIGHT? YEAH.

Okay, so find an herb and write it down. That seemed pretty simple. At least it would be, if you knew what herbs looked like. Which Emmanuelle didn't. Not while they were growing out of the soil that is. So, as she walked around the greenhouse, she tried to look for the bits of herbs that she was the most familiar with. After at least five minutes, she found a plant with leaves that seemed familiar. Cilantro. Well, that was good enough for her. She jotted it down quickly and moved on to the next.

Lex gazed long and hard at the plant as if she expected the name to appear and make her life much easier. When no name appeared she took her quill and began poking it; a good idea considering it might have been sleeping and in that case would not have seen her standing there waiting for it to introduce itself.

Hmmm...

Ah a voice. A welcomed voice too. She turned in time to hear Seri asking about the thing she was saying earlier. Her eyes darted to the girls hands as she, just like everyone else had listened to the Professor and worn their gloves.

"Seri, NOOOO!" Both her hands flew to her mouth immediately and she paused before continuing in a whisper. "Take those off, quick!" She didn't want her friend to die!!!

This behaviour required some explanation. "Don't you know that you could become dragon food if a dragon flies by, sees your gloves and thinks you've killed his cousin?!" She shuddered at the thought. Her eyes fell to the plant again. Her almost shouting hadn't woken it up. Professor..." She called. "I don't know what this plant is and it's being really stubborn about not wanting to introduce itself.." If portraits could talk then there was no reason why plants couldn't.

FIVE POINTS....FIVE POINTS... Minerva's face fell she felt as if she would cry. She had just gotten back to school and this was the first place she came so excited to be back in a place she felt normal, felt comfortable, felt like her and then she goes and blows it by losing points. Was this a sign of how the term was going to go. She hoped not, but she had to try and focus. The professor was talking and she had to listen, gain the points back if she could. She was Minerva Wheatborn of course she could get five points back...she hoped at least.

Listening to Professor Bentley as she explained what they were going to do Minerva couldn't help but smile. She liked exploring the greenhouse and finding herbs sounded fun. She could handle doing this. Opening her book to the herbs she found where she would be looking the most and then pulled out her parchment and quill and tried to copy down the chart that Professor Bentley had on her board the best that she could.




Once she did her best to get a chart onto her parchment Minerva got up and began to explore the plants looking at the different ones trying to make out which one was which. Minerva came across a pretty purple type plant and of course she stopped being that it was purple. Looking at it she moved her book closer to get a comparison with some of the herbs listed.

Looking at it, it seemed to have small leaves, purplish flowers, and it seemed to stand about four inches. Minerva looked at her book and decided that the plant had to be Agastache Foeniculum. Setting her book on her knee she took her parchment and wrote on her chart again.

With one herb on her table and four to go, Sierra began searching around the greenhouse once again. She wasn't going to turn around and look in that direction, because that's the direction she'd come in. She didn't know enough about any of those plants.

Too bad there wasn't a Ravenclaw nearby to cheat from...

There wasn't, though, and the professor was literally RIGHT THERE, so Sierra ventured further to look for something she was familiar with. That's when she came upon he gillyweed. Now this was a plant she was familiar with. It was commonly known, easy to identify, and easy to figure out the uses for.

She copied down the name and then described how it looked like gray-green rat tails. Eww. What an appearance. She then went on to describe how the plant was used to give a person gills and webbed hands and feet, so they could stay underwater for longer periods of time.

Perfect. Two down, three to go.

Alyssa was on the hunt for her last and final herb. She knew that she was running out of time, but she didn’t want to rush through the aisles and end up missing an important one. So as she walked through the rows, she would spend time looking at the lower planters just in case the Professor had grown some of her herbs there.

After awhile it just seemed like every plant, except for the flesh-eating plants looked like a herb, but Alyssa didn’t give up hope of finding another herb.
‘I know that you’re here somewhere. Come on where are you?’Alyssa thought to herself. As she came across a plant that looked like an herb, she would look into her book to verify whether it was or not. Then she found one that looked like one in her book. She quickly bent down to study the leaf structure and was glad to confirm that she had indeed found another herb. This one was the Oregano, also known as the Wild Marjoram or the Sweet Marjoram, according to her book.
Alyssa quickly took out her journal and started filling in the information from her book, about this specific herb, into her table.

Alyssa reviewed what she had written and then returned back to the front of the greenhouse to wait for further instructions from Professor Bentley

Juliette stood up and walked around the greenhouse, her quill and journal in hand, careful not to get in people's way. She was runnig off in her head what a herb was, and trying to find her first one, looking carefully for one of the five she needed.

Okay, a herb is a plant. Wait that's not helpful. It's used for cooking, so look for like Rosemary and Sage. She thought to herself as she walked. A herb can be grown in a garden too, so look for that. She thought again, walking right over to a small garden.
She was right too! It was sage. She shuffled her journal over so she could write and put quill to paper to start her worksheet.


Plant type: sage
apparence: greenish gray leaves. Flowers seem to be a shade of violet or pink
usable parts: Fresh leaves
Uses:adding flavoring to food and for healing purposes. Also aromatherepy[/B]

Taylor listened to the professor then got out a piece of parchment and a quill to sketch out the table. She took out her text book like the professor had said so that she could identify the herbs.

SPOILER!!: table

Tay looked around at all the different herbs and started for the Aloe. She smiled and started writing on her list. Taylor hummed while she wrote down things on the table about Aloe, hoping it wouldnt bother anyone, seeing how she wasnt humming loudly. Tay sighed, wondering why they couldnt do this for homework instead of classwork but she liked the professor so she didnt mind too much. Taylor put the last letter on the table about Aloe and looked at it.

SPOILER!!: table

One down and four to go until this activity was over for Taylor. Her hand had started to hurt so she massaged it a little before going to the next herb.

After the professor had given them their instructions, Ariella got straight to work! She grabbed a blank sheet of papter and her Herbology book and started walking around the greenhouse before finding on that she found particularly interesting. Searching through her book she found the herb...Fairy Lights...



Yes, she did think it was funny...

"Nice quill!" Seri commented. "Mine's snidget feather; don't tell anyone; BUT IT'S FAKE." Seri finished in a voice far from a whisper.

Seri pulled her Dragon-hide gloves off like they had caught on fire! She didn't think that was a grand enough gesture; so she theew them a few metres away from her, and then shamefuly retrieved them and shoved them in a robe-pocket. "Oh MERLIN! You saved me Lex!" Seri visibly relaxed. Thank Merlin she had a friend like Lex to warn her of these things!

"Hello... Goodmorning.... Goodday.... Guten Morgen... Bonjour?" Seri repeated to the plant. If Lex thought plants talked, they Talked. "Yes Miss, this plant won't respond to any non-threatening geeetings as one might usually..." Seri frowned. This plant better be okay.

Herbs weren't actually what Spike thought of as a fun lesson, but this activity involved moving around and identifying, so he couldn't complain too much. Definitely better than sitting still and being lectured at, like in some other of his subjects.

Avoiding the crowd, Spike started heading to a small container on the far side. In it was a soft, almost furry plant with oblong long-ish leaves. A slight rub of a leaf and subsequent sniff of his fingers confirmed it was what he thought. Sage.

After Juliette found the sage, she continued to walk around the greenhouse, happy that she had one plant down. It wasn't like she hated Herbology (in fact she loved animals and the outdoors) but this might be a little bit daunting at first.

Okay, you have one down. What else is used for cooking? She thought. Her brain thought back to see what the house-elf always used. Sage and... rosemary! It was completely obvious! She looked around and consulted her textbook, and finally found what she thought was rosemary. Putting quill to paper again, she wrote down the description of the plant.

Plant: Rosemary
apparence: green spiky leaves with violet flowers on the top.
Usable parts: the stems and the leaves
Uses: flavoring food and drink

Kendall was actually a bit disappointed when Professor Bentley had started the lesson. Herbs weren't cool creature-like plants. They were just boring old normal plants, so she'd turned back to Beezus, Vickers and the other girl who hadn't said what her name was. She could listen to the discussion, at least, even if she wasn't excited about it. At least some plants still could be dangerous, but it really had been more interesting trying to figure out why Vickers had stared at her before he had said anything. That was weird, even when she was used to people looking at her like she was a bit odd. Usually she knew why, and she hadn't done anything right now. As far as she knew, her hair hadn't even done its weird mood-thingy, but then that was because it was class. She usually didn't get way emotional in class.

Then they were given an activity, and she'd waited to see if they were going to have to pair up. But they weren't, and both Beezus and the unnamed older girl had wandered off to look for herbs, and she sighed. Alone again, unless she could drag Vickers with her. Instead, she just dropped her backpack and took out a scrap of parchment. She wasn't dragging everything around with her if they were staying in the greenhouse, so she'd just go try to identify things, then come back and do the table when she had her textbook again for that information. Therefore, she set off with just the scrap of parchment and a quill, quickly finding a little bush that she thought was daisies. It looked a little bit different on closer inspection, though, so she went through her little bit of herbological knowledge from previous terms and wandering at home. Feverfew. That looks kinda like daisies, so maybe that's what this is, she concluded, remembering her mother using it before when she'd been sick. So she noted that down, even though it was still basically a guess, then wan derd off to look for four more herbs.

This activity didn't seem to hard. Go around and choose five herbs. There wasn't any man-eating involved anywhere in this. So he got a move on from the back of the class and began roaming around looking for herbs.
He paused for a moment and took a quick look at a long and slender plant.
Taking it to his work station he jotted down the information that Bentley asked for.



Once he finished writing down the information that was needed he moved on to getting his next nonlethal herb.

Taylor wandered around until she saw what her textbook said was catnip. Tay sighed and put her book down and pulled out her quill, filling out the table for the second herb. There was three more to go and Tay was going into a bad mood from all of the writing but she put on a smile and stayed at work. After a few moments, Taylor finally filled out the table for catnip and looked down smiling as she saw the table starting to look nice and colorful with two out of five herbs. Tay wondered why anyone would call an herb catnip but her wondering wasnt too strong so she made sure that her table was nice and neat.

SPOILER!!: table

Tay flipped through her textbook, seeing another herb. She went over to it, with all of her things that she was using to try to indentify it.

Yikes. Spiky.

The next easily identifiable plant that stuck out at Max was clearly a nettle plant. Max leaned in close to this plant, too, to look at the tiny hairs that grew from the leaves. It was an herb, right? And this was one of the coolest-looking plants he had come across so far, so he saw every reason to note it. He loved Nettle tea and he had used the nettles in Potions before, so he noted both of those uses in the last box of the row. After that, he made quick notes of the name and other traits.

Text Cut: Chart

HMMM. That would probably be sufficient enough. So he just needed one more? Excellent. With a few minutes left, Max set off to find a last, suitable herb to jot down. Speaking of spiky things, he spotted Spike across the way and headed in his direction, figuring the prefect would flock to the more interesting selection of herbs.

Juliete finished writing with a smile. That was her second one down, and there where only three more plants to go. She wondered whether any of these plants could be fed to the animals in the barn, or whether it would lead to disaster. She didn't want to hurt anything (she could never even hurt a house fly) but she wondered what kind of food options the creatures had.

Focus. She reminded herself. Those five points won't get themselves. And with that, she looked at her textbook and found a plant that kind of looked like a bush,, and looking up, she found a plant close to her that matched the description.

"This might be easier than I thought." She mumbled, walking over to the plant that matched her textbook plant and studying it.

Plant: Aloe
apperance: it sort of looks like a bush with many long leaves going in different directions.
Useable parts: the leaves
used for: treating injuries like sunburn, cuts and wounds, and some burns (burns must be minor)

As he wandered around the greenhouse some more he came across a very hairy looking plant. Inspecting it some, and having calmed down about there being no dangers in this greenhouse Oakey touched this one. Pulling his hand back he knew what this herb might be.

He carried it over to his station and wrote down it's information.



As he finished he took a good look at his two herbs, just three more to go.

Tay already did aloe and catnip so next was... dandelion? wait a minute... wasnt that a weed? Taylor looked at her textbook then back at the plant and sighed. great it is a weed AND a herb apparently... She looked at the yellow flowery weed herb and then started on the table for it. Tay, of course, sneaked a glare at it. Stupid confusing plant! Pick if you want to be a weed or an herb! Taylor thought about poking it with her quill but decided not to. She went back to the table as she finished up the last word for dandelion.

SPOILER!!: table

Three down and two to go... Taylor sighed a little, thinking that this activity will never end.

Once Minerva was done writing about her first herb she looked around trying to see what other herbs she could spot without really much trouble. Walking and looking at the plants she smiled, this was where she liked to be, it was fun to hear everyone chatting about class and the feeling of learning made her happy again.

Stopping in front of another group of plants she bent down and opened her book again. This group of plants looked different, she couldn't find any flowers. The leaves were very green and she placed her hand on one of the leaves to feel if it was smooth or ruff. Minerva looked in her book and tried to compare the leaf with pictures in her book. She was about to give up when she found a leaf that looked close to the one in her hand. Looking at what it could be she decided that yes she was pretty sure the plant was Cardamom and began to write on her parchment again.

Vivi inched down the line of plants, although she didn't see any other that really caught her eye. There was one in particular she wanted... one she enjoyed using in potions experiments of her own. A flowering plant drifted too close, and Vivi sneezed rather violently. Ouch.

And then she spotted the dark green leaves, sort of squared off and hairy looking. Her favorite! Vivi fingered one of the leaves and pinched it slightly, enjoying the smell of the plant. It would be better if she could break the leaves, but Herbology professors were so cranky about leaf-breaking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Text 2

Plant: Peppermint
Appearance: Up to 90 cm tall, hairy dark green leaves with reddish veins
Usable parts: leaves and flowering tops, often dried for oil
Uses: Flavoring, medicinal, cosmetic, memory aid

Two more to go now! Juliette smiled as she walked around aimlessly, looking for a herb of an interesting variety. She stopped next to the green onions she found, her nose crinkling a little before she stopped herself.

Plant: green onion
apperance: green stem with little white onion on the end, Leaves on the top
usable parts: the little white onion
uses: culinary uses
Juliette had the urge to write gross for the part and the apparance, but refrained herself, knowing that wasn't going to get her good marks. It was more of a personal grudge between the herb and her anyway. Basically, everytime she ate them she got sick, and the smell of onions made her eyes water so hard she had to leaved the room. They where slimy anyway, so it wasn't her loss. [/B]

Focus. Her brain reminded her again. Shut up about onions. She listened, but crinkled her nose once more as she walke away from the herb (only for a few seconds, as she wanted to walk around with a smile, and not a crinkled nose)

Taylor looked at the three herbs that she done and then looked around. Tay spotted basil... at least that is what the textbook said. She went over to basil and started writing down the information. Taylor smiled and twisted a curl around her finger as she did the writing. She was happy that she was almost done. Tay hoped that the professor didnt mind how colorful her table was since a black and white table was a bit boring in her mind.

SPOILER!!: table

Now that the writing was done, it was time for the last herb! Taylor grinned and looked around.

Leaving the daisy-like plant behind, Kendall had continued wandering. It was easier to figure out what was herbs just by what it looked like everyone else was heading toward or gathering around, but for the most part she avoided those plants. Professor Bentley probably didn't want everyone to just list the same five herbs, so she was going to try to be different, at least. Of course, she had to actually identify five plants, and she figured that she wasn't going to have a lot of time to do it in. It wasn't going to worry her. At least she had the excuse of being individual if she was the last one to finish, which was perfectly fine with her. She liked being unique, even if her one major uniqueness had been proven to be not so much on the train. She didn't actually try to use it as much as Mika apparently did, so therefore she was still unique. The one and only Kendall Lily Quinn.

She'd gotten a bit distracted by Aspen acting like a vampire and making people spaz out, though, and had forgotten all about her mission. In fact, she'd started wondering if garlic was an herb and if there was any in the greenhouse when she'd run straight into a tree. She hadn't even thought there were trees inside the greenhouses, but there it was. Standing right there, and she jumped back as she realized she was actually standing in the planter. That wasn't good, and trees were definitely not herbs. She'd started to turn away when she noticed a plant growing out of the trunk, however. That's not normal, she thought, looking at it closer. Or maybe it was. It kind of looked like Christmas, at least, well, minus the red. Maybe it's mistletoe. Does mistletoe grow on trees?. Either way, she jotted that down on her parchment before moving on. She could look up the answer when she went to fill out her table later.