233 



BKUNFELS AND FUCIIS. 

 By a. H. Chubch. 



The projected issue of a second volume of the Camh ridge 

 British Flo7'a, with a prospect of the continuation of this much- 

 needed work, spaced over many years to come, as also the criticism it 

 invites — that somehow it is not the sort of thing the ordinary British 

 Botanist would put forward as his ideal of what a future work on 

 indigenous vegetation should be (especially in the matter of figures, 

 or even price), — suggests a comparison Avith the production of similar 

 works in the past. Though the ordinary botanist may not be con- 

 versant A\T.th the complications of a modern University Press, he can 

 comprehend the methods of meeting similar jH'oblems on the part of 

 ancient craftsmen, who worked more or less single-handed ; and it is 

 legitimate to compare the results. 



The original standard for all subsequent volumes of illustrations 

 of plants was set up by the genius of one man, Leonard Fuchs *(1501- 

 1566), a leading physician and professor of his time, a wealthy man 

 of considerable influence and with great insight into the scientific needs 

 of his day. His volume ' De Histoeia Stiepium,' published at Basle 

 (1542), is generally recognized as the starting-point of floristic work, in 

 addition to its significance as a compendium of the 'Virtues of Herbs.' 



This volume comprises over 500 (519) folio drawings, with asso- 

 ciated text, of plants growing in South Germany, drawn directly from 

 nature, where possible of life size, on a page 14 in. by 9 f. Portraits 

 of the men responsible for the figures, Heinrich Fiillmaurer and 

 Albrecht Meyer, are shown on the last page, with the methods by 

 which they Avorked :J:, and also, as a special chef cVceucre of his own 

 Avood-cutting, that of the engraver Yitus Rudolph Speckle. Bearing 

 in mind the fact that Fuchs AA-as at the time in his forty-second 3'ear, 

 that Speckle as ' the best engraver in Strasburg ' apparently cut all 

 the blocks, and that the material had to be collected and dravA^n 

 mainly in the summer months, it is evident that at the rate of a 

 block a Aveek, the work aa^ouM have taken ten years to complete §, 

 and that Fuchs must have conceived the idea Avhen a comparatively 



* C/. Sachs, History of Botany, Oxford (1890), p. 20 ; Arber, Herbals, Cam- 

 bridge Press (iyl2). p. 58. A number of figures from Fuchs and Brunfels are 

 reduced for illustration in Mrs. Arber's A'olume ; and page references will be given 

 for Arber (Ar.), Brunfels (Br.), and Fuchsius {F.). On the whole, Ar. figures are 

 coarse parodies of the originals. 



t The letterpress block averages 11 in. by 7, and the illustrations 13 by 8 

 (12^-85^) 5 ^^ approximation to the ratio, Avhich has been regarded as the 

 expression of perfect taste, the more remarkable as modern books tend to a 

 squarer sheet. 



X Fiillmaurer is shown making the final copy on the block, and Meyer is 

 sketching a plant standing in a pot on the table ; the plant is naturally drawn, 

 but Meyer's figure is already conventionalized, and not much like the copy- 

 possibly a joke on the part of the other man who drew it. 



§ The issue of a somewhat similar collection of 500 figures of British-growr 

 plants from drawings from nature, by Baxter, at the Oxford Botanic Garden 

 similarly took 10 years (1833-1843). and worked out at the rate of about a plat^ 

 a week: rf. " Biographical Notes, LXXIV.," Journcl of Botany. 1919. p. 58. 



JouB>'AL or BoTAyr. — \*J-L. 57. rSEriEMBEE. 1919.^ S 



