238 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



as samples and specimens of technique, ratlier than a definite set 

 course of illustration, may be mentioned the Anemo7ie Puhatilla 

 (Br. i. 217), a beautiful study both in drawing and engraving of a 

 softly hairy type (much spoilt in Arber, 171) ; a study of a Colts- 

 foot shoot, pulled up and flagging (Br. i. 41) is good enough for a 

 modern drawing-copy, and will be referred to later ; the first drawing 

 of a fern, Scolopendrium (Br. ii. 40: Ar, pirated reduction, 174). 

 Examples showing the method of work, with flagging leaves or 

 damaged basal portions, may be found in Twaj^-blade (i. 282), Wood- 

 Anemone (ii. 80), Burdock (ii. 61), Saxifrage (i. 185)— the care 

 taken in doing the figures shows the exact condition of the specimen. 

 Further details may be noted in : — the Herb-Kobert (ii. 37), from a 

 dry situation : a small cut, yet showing flowers and fruits ; the former 

 with 5 petals and 5 stamens ; even the sepal-fringes are indicated ; 

 tlie Wild Strawberry (ii. 35) shows runners and an offset, flowers and 

 fruit ; the fruits pendulous and the dichasial construction properly 

 drawn ; the Tway-blade (i. 182) is correct in the scale-leaves on the 

 axis, the details of the flowers and buds, and the drooj^ing of the 

 wilting inflorescence ; the Lamiums (i. 152) have quite well-drawn 

 corollas with hoods; Salvia (ii. 26) shows the extended bilobed 

 stigma ; in Helleborus (i. 30 ; Ar. 49) the prefloration of the sepals 

 is correct, and nectaries are indicated as well as stamens— the fine scale- 

 leaf at the base is particularly well figured ; the Yellow Flag (Br. 

 ii. 47) is arranged to show two tunnels of the flower, with stigmatic 

 flaps, the third being foreshortened, in the neatest way possible, 

 though not clear at first sight. Knowing what the details of the 

 flowers really are, one of course expects to see them in a botanical 

 figure nowadays : but such details are not found in other herbalists ; 

 and modern floras may be conspicuously poor in representing detail 

 which is there, but not seen. The sets of Plantains (i. 23-25), Malvas 

 (ii. 70-72), and Orchids (i. 103-106) are particularly good : one of 

 the last indicates the spiral twist of the ovary : the Bee Orchis and the 

 SpirantJies are quite characteristic — the small flowers on the spiral of 

 tlie latter show up with a lens. 



Most remarkable of all pei'haps are the figures of Niipliar (i. 36) 

 and Nymplicea (i. 37), drawn the full size of the page (10 in. b}" 6^); 

 these are the boldest types of the work, printed to face each other ; the 

 NijinplicBa blossom is arranged to show the 4 crossed sepals, stamens, 

 stigmatic disk, and apical papilla ; the dead submerged blossom and 

 the sizes of the coming buds, as also the rhizome with its phyllotaxis 

 scars and a lateral vegetative bud (Ar. 141, details lost in reproduo 

 tion) *. The Nupliar again shows the pattern on the stigmatic disk, 

 the leaf-scars of the rhizome with their peculiar adventitious roots, as 

 also the broken submerged leaves, some completely worn away. The 

 idea of getting a complete specimen of such a plant at all at this date 

 expresses the initial difliculty of the problem, and is a lesson to 



* According to Arber (p. 172) this figure exactly expresses a Water Lily plant 

 ' buoyed up by the water.' This misses the point of Brimfels' method. Really 

 it is an entire plant dug up, washed and arranged on a table, and dra^vn as it was 

 with the leaves spaced out flat. A water-lily does not grow like this at all, the 

 leaves are arranged in a quincuncial rosette ; the flower is erected. 



