28 THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



each species." While not remarkable for their minute 

 scientific accuracy, such as we should expect to find in 

 modern drawings though even in this respect they 

 often reach a high botanical level " they probably sur- 

 pass in artistic quality," says Mr Miall, " any long series 

 of botanical figures that has ever been published." It 

 is this artistic quality that renders the figures so attrac- 

 tive. Even such a prosaic species as the wild cabbage 

 is seen to possess an intrinsic beauty. Sometimes, as 

 in the case of the hop, the bryony and the wild pea, the 

 figures are arranged in a highly decorative manner so as 

 to cover the entire folio sheet. Other woodcuts, such 

 as those of the herb-paris, the two hellebores, the wild 

 peony, the cyperus or galingale, the wild garlic and the 

 yellow horned-poppy, are of quite extraordinary beauty. 

 It is interesting, too, to know, not only the names, but 

 the appearance of the artists who produced such excel- 

 lent work. Very rarely is such information vouchsafed 

 in works of this kind, but Leonhard Fuchs was clearly 

 not unmindful of the assistance he had received from 

 those who produced the illustrations. In addition to a 

 fine full-paged portrait of the author, represented as 

 holding a spray of veronica in his hand, which forms the 

 frontispiece, there will be found at the end of the volume 

 the named portraits of his three assistants viz. the 

 two draughtsmen, Heinricus Fullmauret and Albertus 

 Mayer who are seen copying a plant from nature, and 

 the engraver, Vitus Rudolphus Specklin or Speckle, 

 who cut the wood-blocks. In the preface to his Herbal, 

 Fuchs thus generously acknowledges their labours : 

 " Vitus Rudolphus Specklin, by far the best engraver of 

 Strasburg, has admirably copied the wonderful in- 

 dustry of the draughtsmen, and has with such excellent 



