Crepis virens (Hawk’s Beard, aka garden weed). Flora Batava (Plants of the Netherlands, 1877), Vol. 15.
Crepis Virens: “Crepis, Pliny, is from the Greek crepis, a kind of boot; and the second Latin name means green, fresh. It was called Hawkbit because the hawk was supposed to pluck it and smear its eyes with it to improve its vision.” ~British Wildflowers in Their Natural Haunts (1919)
Dirk van Gelder Wild Plants (1925) pen, ink, watercolour (study for a litho of the same name).
delicate first growths
(via botanikopress)
The Poppy is the most transparent and delicate of all blossoms… The rest, nearly all of them, depend on the texture of their surface for colour. But the Poppy is painted glass; it never glows as brightly as when the sun shines through it…it is a flame, and warms the wind like a blown ruby…. When the flower opens, it seems a deliverance from torture. ~ John Ruskin
Wildflowers Every Child Should Know (1909) by Frederic William Stack. Stack was a field collector for the Scientific Section, Vassar Brothers Institute; and Natural History at Vassar College.
To my bonny boy, whose many inquiries have suggested this undertaking, I owe my everlasting gratitude and affection. ~ Frederic William Stack, New Rochelle, New York, April 1909 (Preface)
Wildflowers East of the Rockies by Chester A. Reed (1910). Pitcher plant: Sarracenia purpurea, a carnivorous plant.
Gentiana acaulis (1788). Mountainous perennial native to central and southern Europe.
Black Swallowtail visiting thistle. Butterlfies Worth Knowing (1923), Clarence M. Weed. Illustration by W. I. Beecroft.
“Thistle” by W. Hamilton Gibson from In Berkshire with the Wild Flowers (1879) by Elaine and Dora Read Goodale.
Club-hair Mariposa Lily (Calochortus clavatus). Photo: Noah Elhardt
Botanical illustration: 1898 Curtis’ Botanical Magazine, Vol. 124 (Smith and Fitch).
British Wildflowers: familiarly described in the four seasons for the use of beginners and amateurs. (1867)
