Flora: An Illustrated History of the Garden Flower - Hardcover

Elliott, Dr. W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1552096041 ISBN 13: 9781552096048

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2001

Synopsis

With stunning illustrations from the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library collection and concise text by Royal Horticultural Society archivist Dr. Brent Elliott, Flora tell the fascinating story of the worldwide botanical exploration undertaken over the past 500 years.

Founded in 1804, the RHS led the way in sending collectors around the world in search of new floral species, fostering the domestic cultivation of the garden flowers we know and love today. In the process the RHS has built an unrivaled collection of stunning artworks and rare books covering five centuries of plant history. The Society's Lindley Library is one of the world's finest horticulture archives, containing more than 250,000 paintings, illustrations and rare books.

The illustrations in Flora, many by the great names in botanical art, are notable not only for their historical value in charting the development of garden flowers, but also for their indisputable beauty and artistic merit. Flora is divided into six geographical sections: Europe; Middle East; Southern & Tropical Africa; Australasia & The Pacific; The Americas; and Asia. Biographies of the botanists and artists are also included.

The history of botanical illustration is long and broad. Today, the art is undergoing a renaissance: botanical illustrations are found on everything from greeting cards to wallpaper to expensive original artworks. This spectacular collection of Royal Horticultural Society illustrations will capture the attention of gardeners and art lovers alike.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Brent Elliott is archivist of the Royal Horticultural Society. He is author of Victorian Gardens, The Country House Garden and Treasures of the Royal Horticultural Society.

Reviews

At first glance, this gorgeous volume appears to be an art book, but the nature of its art, hundreds of superior botanical illustrations reaching back several centuries and chronicling nearly 500 years of plant exploration and horticultural experimentation, defines it as a work of science history. Elliott, librarian and archivist at the Royal Horticultural Society, focuses not on plant hunters but on the plants themselves, summarizing stories of a botanical diaspora that changed the flora of Europe and the style and mission of gardens. The "first great wave of plant introductions" arrived in Western Europe from Turkey in the mid-sixteenth century, bringing hyacinths and tulips. The Americas were also a fertile source for flowering plants such as sunflowers and zinnias, and floras from Africa (crinums), Asia (irises and chrysanthemums), and Australia (banksias) were embraced with equal fervor. Each precise yet expressive illustration is accompanied by a capsule history of the plant's introduction, reception, and use, and the reader is left in awe of nature's endless variations on the themes of beauty, adaptation, and procreation. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Librarian and archivist of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), Elliott (Victorian Gardens) presents spectacular examples of five centuries of botanical illustration taken from drawings and printed works in the RHS's collection. These are organized into five chapters corresponding to the five great sources of garden plants: Europe, the Turkish Empire, Africa, the Americas, and Asia and Australasia. Elliott introduces each chapter with a description of how the influx of new flowers from each area was incorporated into gardens and gardening design in Britain. His brief text for each of the beautiful, oversize illustrations focuses on the plants themselves; how and when they were first discovered, described, and named; how they were used; and how their popularity waxed and waned. This book makes no attempt to be a history of botanical illustration; indeed, the one flaw is that the sources of the illustrations are relegated to a list at the back of the book. The book concludes with a useful essay on plant names through history and short biographies of the illustrators. Recommended for all larger gardening collections. Daniel Starr, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1552096041
• ISBN 13: 9781552096048
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 335