What do botany and vampirism have in common?

Literature and science is a field that has always interested me and Professor Martin Willis has just published Literature and Science: Reader’s Guide to Essential Criticism. This will be of interest to Company of Wolves delegates as it has a very good chapter on animal studies which also covers botany and eugenics. My work on botany gets a good mention here which is very nice to see. Yes, eighteenth-century botany was my key research area before I was seduced over to the dark side! Joseph Pitton de Tournefort is a good way of showing the relationship between these seemingly diverse topics. When he voyaged to Myconos in the eighteenth century in search of botanical specimens he found instead a plague of vampires!! There are overlaps if you look hard enough. I would love to know if anyone has any other connections between botany and vampirism? Some pertinent images from Willis below.

books of blood and science co-mingle on my desk but this is the newest