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Tag Archives: botany
Francesco Cupani
The Alpine House @CUBotanicgarden is pretty stunning at the moment, what with the cyclamen, autumn crocus and colchicums – do go and have a look! Among all the incredibly photogenic flowers, I came across Colchicum cupani, which compelled me finally … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Botany, Gardens, History, Italy, London, Natural history
Tagged botany, Francesco Cupani, gardens, Paolo Silvio Boccone, Robert Uvedale, Sicily, sweet peas
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Plant of the Month: April 2019
Which came first, fritillary as the name of a plant (Fritillaria meleagris, the snake’s-head fritillary, also known as chess-flower, Lazarus-bell, leper-lily, frog-cup, or drooping tulip), or fritillary as the name of a butterfly? It seems that the plant has priority, … Continue reading
Plant of the Month: March 2019
As I have mentioned in passing before, the botanist Pierre Magnol (1638–1715) was born in Montpellier, and spent most of his life there. His father and grandfather were apothecaries, and his mother’s male relatives were physicians. His older brother César … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Botany, France, Gardens, History, Museums and Galleries, Natural history
Tagged botany, Charles Plumier, Curtis' Botanical Magazine, Ehret, magnolias, Montpellier, Pierre Magnol, Redouté, Tournefort
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Plant of the Month: February 2019
I had always thought that Garrya elliptica, usually at its most spectacular at this time of year, was an Australian plant. I have no idea why … In fact, it comes from a quite restricted strip of coastal western America, … Continue reading
William Turner, Naturalist
I have mentioned before Dr Richard Pulteney (1730–1801), the sole survivor of eleven children from an Old Anabaptist family near Loughborough, Leicestershire, who was apprenticed to an apothecary and then set up as an apothecary and surgeon in Leicester. After … Continue reading
Posted in Botany, Gardens, History, Natural history, Printing and Publishing
Tagged botany, herbals, Richard Pulteney, William Turner
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Doomed to Find a Premature Grave
These portentous words appear in the introduction to the 1834 English edition of Letters from India by the French natural historian Victor Jacquemont (1801–32), ‘Travelling Naturalist to the Museum of Natural History, Paris’. If his name is remembered now in … Continue reading
Plant of the Month: February 2018
‘In regard to plants, no one has treated this subject [natural selection] with more spirit and ability than W. Herbert, Dean of Manchester, evidently the result of his great horticultural knowledge.’ Charles Darwin, in On the Origin of Species I … Continue reading