Materia Medica

Old school botanica. Quiet space jazz.

[porcelainapparition]

🗝

[flora-file]

What am I thinking now?

[harvardfineartslib]

This week is National Wildflower Week.

Gloriosa superba is a plant grown as an ornamental in warm climates the world over, but in India and parts of Africa it occurs as a wildflower. It is a species of flowering plant in the family Colchicaceae. Common names include flame lily, climbing lily, creeping lily, glory lily, gloriosa lily, tiger claw, agnishikha and fire lily.

In Zimbabwe, it is their national flower, and it is the state flower of Tamil Nadu state in India.

The plant is toxic, but also medicinal, and has been used to treat many ailments. Be alert, however. Every part of the plant is poisonous, especially the tuberous rhizomes. It is toxic enough to cause human and animal fatalities!

It is best to enjoy the flowers with your eyes only.

This image is part of FAL’s Digital Images and Slides Collection (DISC), a collection of images digitized from secondary sources for use in teaching and learning. FAL does not own the original artworks represented in this collection, but you can find more information at HOLLIS Images.

Gloriosa superba (Maharaja Serfoji's Sarasvati Mahal Library, Thanjavur) circ. 1802 Place of production: Thanjavur, Tamil Nādu, India Watercolor on paper Indian/South Indian Repository: Sarasvati Mahal Library, Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu, India) (inhabited place) HOLLIS Number : 8001550122

[heaveninawildflower]

Illustrations of trees taken from ‘Larousse’ (1932).

Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

Wikimedia.

[geritsel]

Rodolphe Bresdin - La Baigneuse et le Temps

[heaveninawildflower]

Myosotis (Forget-me-nots) taken from ‘Les Fleurs de Jardins’ by J. Eudes (1856-1938),

Published before 1929.

Wikimedia.

[heaveninawildflower]

A branch of Japanese fir (Abies firma).

Watercolour by S. Kawano.

https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/V0043610.html

Wikimedia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

[heaveninawildflower]

Forsythia and Petunia taken from ‘La Belgique Horticole.’

Published 1851.

Harvard University Botany Libraries.

archive.org

[clawmarks]

A book of studies in plant form with some suggestions for their application to design - A. E. V. Lilley and W. Midgeley - 1896 - via Internet Archive

[godsofsound]

Visit Original Link

Steely Dan - The Caves of Altamira

[dreamssoreal]

When there wasn’t even any Hollywood...

[heaveninawildflower]

Viola Tricolor (1868) by Abraham Jacobus Wendel  (1826-1915)

Chromolithograph: G. Severeyns.

Wikimedia.

[centuriespast]

Jacob Isaackszon van RUISDAEL The Marsh in a Forest c. 1665 Oil on canvas, 73 x 99 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

[heaveninawildflower]

Helianthus - Withered Sunflowers (1926) by Alois Hänisch (Austria, 1836-1937).

Wikimedia.

[oldbookillustrations]

Mountain visible from tropical forest clearing. Albert Berg, from Physiognomy of tropical vegetation in South America, London: 1854.

Source: The New York Public Library.

[hourglassofblacktears-deactivat]

Orpheus (1863) — François-Louis Français

[heaveninawildflower]

Reddish Balsam Apple (1750–72) by Georg Wolfgang Knorr (German, 1705–1761). 

Hand-coloured etching and engraving.

Image and text information courtesy MFA Boston. 

[curiouscatalog]

Arctic bluebird

From: United States. War Department. Reports of explorations and surveys to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Washington : Printed by Beverley Tucker, 1855-1860

F593 .U58 1855 volume 10

[heaveninawildflower]

Sunflowers by Basilius Besler (1561–1629) taken from ‘Hortus Eystettensis’ (1613). Engraving by Heinrich Ulrich (1567–1621).

UB Eichstätt-Ingolstadt  Wikimedia.