404 NATURE-PRINTING 



to the aid of this branch of science in particular, -whilst its future development 

 promises facilities for copying other objects of nature, the reproduction of which is 

 not within the province of the human hand to execute ; and, even if it were possible, 

 it would involve an amount of labour scarcely commensurate with the result. 



Possessing the advantages of rapid and economic production, the means of un- 

 limited multiplication, and, above all, unsurpassable resemblance to the original, 

 nature-printing is calculated to assist much in facilitating not only the first-sight 

 recognition of many objects in natural history, but in supplying the detailed evi- 

 dences of identification which must prove of essential value to botanical science in 

 particular. 



Experiments to print direct from nature were made as far back as about 250 years ; 

 it is certain, therefore, that the present success of the art is mainly attributable to 

 the general advance of Bcience, and the perfection to which it has been brought in 

 particular instances. 



On account of the great expense attending the production of woodcuts of plants in 

 early times, many naturalists suggested the possibility of making direct use of Nature 

 herself as a copyist. In the 4 Book of Art,' of Alexis Pedemontanus (printed in the 

 year 1572), and translated into German by Wecker, may be found the first recorded 

 hint as to taking impressions of plants. 



At a later period, in the Journal des Voyages, by M. de Moncoys, in 1650, it is 

 mentioned that one Welkenstein, a Dane, gave instruction in making impressions of 

 plants. 



The process adopted to produce such results at this period consisted in laying out 

 flat and drying the plants. By holding them over the smoke of a candle, or an oil- 

 lamp, they became blackened in an equal manner all over ; and, by being placed 

 between two soft leaves of paper, and being rubbed down with a smoothing-bone, 

 the soot was imparted to the paper, and the impression of the veins and fibres 

 was so transferred. But though the plants wer<j dried in every case, it was by 

 no means absolutely necessary ; as the author has proved by the simple experiment 

 of applying lamp-black or printer's ink to a fresh leaf, and producing a successful 

 impression. 



Linnaeus, in his PhUosophia Botanica, relates that in America, in 1707, impressions 

 of plants were made by Hessel ; and later (1728 1757), Professor Kniphof, at Erfurt 

 (who refers to the experiments of Hessel), in conjunction with the bookseller Fiinke, 

 established a printing-office for the purpose. He produced a work entitled Herbarium 

 Vivum. The range and extent of his work, 12 folio volumes, containing 1^00 plates, 

 corroborates the curious fact of a printing-office being required. These impressions 

 were obtained by the substitution of printer's ink for lamp-black, and flat pressure 

 for the smoothing-bone ; but a new feature at this time was introduced that of 

 colouring the impressions by hand according to nature a proceeding which, though 

 certainly contributing to the beauty and fidelity of the effect, yet had the disadvantage 

 of frequently rendering indistinct, and even of sometimes totally obliterating, the . 

 tender structure and finer veins and fibres. Many persons at the time objected to 

 the indistinctness of such representations and the absence of parts of the fructifica- 

 tion ; but it was the decided opinion of Linnaeus that to obtain a representation of 

 the difference of species was sufficient. 



In 1748 Seligmann, an engraver at Nuremberg, published in folio-plates figures of 

 several leaves he had reduced to skeletons. As he thought it impossible to make 

 drawings sufficiently correct, he took impressions from the leaves in red ink, but no 

 mention is made of the means he adopted. Of the greater part he gave two figures, 

 one of the upper and another of the lower side. 



In the year 1763 the process is again referred to in the Gazette Salutairc, in a short 

 article upon a Secette pour copier toutes sortcs de Plantes sur Papier. 



About 25 or 30 years later, Hoppe edited his Ectypa Plantarum Ratisbonensium, 

 and also his Ectypa Plantarum Selectarum, the illustrations in which were produced 

 jn a manner similar to that employed by Kniphof. These impressions were found 

 also to be durable, but still were defective. 



In the year 1809 mention is made in Pritzell's Thesaurus of a 'New Method of 

 taking Natural Impressions of Plants' ; and lastly, in reference to the early history 

 of the subject, the attention of scientific men was called to an article, in a work pub- 

 lished by Grazer, in 1814, on a ' New Impression of Plants." 



Twenty years afterwards the subject had undergone remarkable change, not only 

 in the results produced, but also in the mode of operation to be pursued, which con- 

 sisted in fixing an impression of the prepared plant in a plate of metal by pressure. 

 It also appears, on the authority of Professor Thiele, that Peter Kyhl, a Danish gold- 

 smith and engraver, established at Copenhagen, applied himself for a length of time 

 to the ornamentation of articles in silver ware, and the means he adopted were, 





