The Strange Legend of the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary

 From LBV:

The French were not the only encyclopedists; nor were they the first. In fact, they were inspired by the French translation of the Cyclopaedia or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, a work published twenty-three years earlier by the Englishman Ephraim Chambers, a globe maker turned author/editor who had, in turn, translated French scientific texts. In the Cyclopaedia, he included an entry under the same heading as Diderot, Agnus scythicus, which referred to a zoophyte (an animal with plant characteristics) with the appearance of a lamb living in Tartary. Other names given were Agnus vegetabilis and Agnus tartaricus, as well as endonyms like Borometz, Borametz, and Boranetz. (Read more.)