66 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



about a hundred Oxalises. Nearly all the plates are 

 coloured. Most of these delicate little plants with their 

 bulbous roots come from the Cape of Good Hope. Jacquin 

 seems to have had a peculiar affection for them, as, besides 

 this monograph, he constantly figures them in his mis- 

 cellaneous works. I have often tried to procure his book 

 on Stapelias, also a large family of Cape plants rather 

 like small Cactuses, but have never been able to do so, 

 and have only seen it at the Museum. 



1797-1804. 'Plantarum Eariorum Horti Caesarei 

 Schoenbrunnensis.' These four superb folios, containing 

 five hundred spotless plates by Jacquin, represent some 

 of his very finest work. The plates are all coloured, in a 

 much stronger and more finished way than in his other 

 books. Some of the plates are folded and larger than the 

 book, and others extend across the whole width of the 

 book. As an example of the richness of the plates I 

 will describe one taken at random, which he calls Vitis 

 vulpina. The shoot of the vine starts from a short piece 

 of stronger branch at the very top of the page, and curves 

 to the bottom, turning up at the end with young leaves 

 and tendrils. This young shoot has two bunches of the 

 flower as it appears in spring. Quite at the top, on the 

 right, is a detached autumn leaf turning red, and drawn 

 from the back with every vein showing. Half-way down, 

 on the left, is a bunch of ripe purple grapes ; with one pip, 

 drawn life-size, at the side. Below this is a single flower, 

 highly magnified, with a drawing apart showing pistil and 

 stamen. There are ten life-sized leaves on the branch, 

 and the whole is contained on an unfolded plate. A short 

 botanical description of each plant is added in Latin. 

 The hand-made paper on which these plates are printed 

 puts to shame all that we now produce. Many of the 

 plants are named differently from what they are now. 

 To those who have never seen Jacquin's works these 



