The Florilegium

THE KITCHEN GARDEN

The Herbal & the Kitchen Garden

The useful garden — the medicinal plants, the fruits, and the insects that live upon them. Beauty that was meant to work.

The German Iris — Iris Germanica, from A Curious Herbal, Elizabeth Blackwell, 1737–1739

1737–1739

The German Iris

The medicinal plant that saved a family — in Blackwell’s own watercolour.

Iris germanica
The Banana — Banana Flower and Fruit, from Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, Maria Sibylla Merian, 1705

1705

The Banana

A banana in flower and in fruit, with the life that lives upon it.

Musa
The Twelve Months of Fruit — from The Twelve Months of Fruit, after Pieter Casteels III, pub. Robert Furber, 1732

1732

The Twelve Months of Fruit

An abundance of fruit, in the grand manner.

The Spiny Golden Star — A Curious Herbal, Elizabeth Blackwell, 1737–1739

1737–1739

The Spiny Golden Star

From the herbal a woman drew, engraved and coloured herself, to get her husband out of debtors’ prison.

t. 272Pallenis spinosa
The Dragon Arum — botanical watercolour, botanical watercolour, 19th century, 19th century

19th century

The Dragon Arum

A metre-tall purple hood that smells, deliberately, of rotting meat.

Dracunculus vulgaris
The Sea Orache — Flora Graeca, Ferdinand Bauer, for John Sibthorp, 1806–1840

1806–1840

The Sea Orache

From the most expensive flora ever produced — thirty copies, forty years, one fortune.

vol. 10, t. 962Atriplex halimus
The Bastard Cabbage — Flora Graeca, Ferdinand Bauer, for John Sibthorp, 1806–1840

1806–1840

The Bastard Cabbage

A roadside weed of the Aegean, recorded to the same standard as a rare orchid.

vol. 7, t. 612Rapistrum rugosum
The Frog Fruit — Flora Graeca, Ferdinand Bauer, for John Sibthorp, 1806–1840

1806–1840

The Frog Fruit

A creeping mat plant, drawn wide — one of the few landscape plates in the flora.

vol. 6, t. 553Phyla nodiflora
The Prickly Samphire — Flora Graeca, Ferdinand Bauer, for John Sibthorp, 1806–1840

1806–1840

The Prickly Samphire

A spined umbellifer of Mediterranean sand — architecture disguised as a weed.

vol. 3, t. 265Echinophora spinosa