Hello, pip radish. Thanks for your post; it gave me a chuckle.

If the mandrake is the radish, then you have made it into the poetry of John Donne.

Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.

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In the past I've wondered whether 'wind' (in the sense of moving air)ever really had a long i sound. I think from this we can conclude that it did.

Note the reference to mermaids singing. So they must have scales, otherwise they couldn't sing, only wail.