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The botanist's repository for new and rare plants; vol. 03 & 04 [of 10] — Text and Context

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In Category - Plants Flowers

Authors: Andrews, Henry Cranke, active 1799-1828 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2024 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Plants -- Pictorial works; Plants, Cultivated -- Pictorial works; Rare plants -- Pictorial works Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 56,171

Reading time 245 min

Text sections 10

The source record for The botanist's repository for new and rare plants; vol. 03 & 04 [of 10] — Text and Context measures this digital text at 56,171 words, 4 hr 5 min estimated reading time, and 10 detected text sections.

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #72911

This combined volume of Andrews' botanical plates presents hand-colored engravings of newly introduced plants, with facing Latin and English descriptions following the Linnaean system. The excerpts reveal a work concerned with precise classification, contested nomenclature, and the practicalities of greenhouse cultivation.

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_Long-Flowered Hillia._

_HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Six Chives. One Pointal.

CALYX. Perianthium hexaphyllum; foliolis oblongis, acutis, erectis.

COROLLA monopetala; tubus cylindricus, longissimus; limbus sexfidus; laciniis oblongis, planis.

STAMINA. Filamenta sex, brevissima. Antheræ oblongæ, erectæ, intra faucem corollæ.

PISTILLUM. Germen inferum, oblongum, obsolete hexagonum. Stylus filiformis, longitudine tubi. Stigma capitatum.

PERICARPIUM oblongum, compressum, biloculare.

SEMINA numerosa, minima.

EMPALEMENT. Cup six-leaved; leaflets oblong, sharp pointed and upright.

BLOSSOM one petal, tube cylindrical, very long; border six-cleft; segments oblong, flat.

CHIVES. Threads six very short. Tips oblong, upright, within the mouth of the blossom.

POINTAL. Seed-bud beneath oblong, slightly six-sided. Shaft thread-shaped, the length of the tube. Summit headed.

SEED-VESSEL oblong, flattened and two celled.

SEEDS many, very small.

Hillia corollis sexfidis, laciniis lanceolatis, supra convexis; foliis ovatis, acutis, glabris.

Hillia with blossoms six cleft, segments lance-shaped, convex above; leaves egg-shaped, pointed and smooth.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. A flower cut open, to expose the number and situation of the Chives.

2. The Shaft and its summit, natural size, placed by the flower, to shew its proportional length to the tube.

3. The Seed-bud, with the leaflets of the Empalement attached, cut transversely, to shew the division of the cells in the center.

This species of Hillia was first introduced to our gardens in the year 1789, from the Island of Barbadoes, sent in plants, by Mr. J. Elcock, to Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, Hammersmith. Originally this shrub was specifically termed, _parasitica_ by professor Jacquin, when he first formed, and titled the Genus, after Dr. J. Hill, of voluminous memory; from a supposition that it was to be found growing, only, upon some other plant; a circumstance, which being denied by Swartz, he has altered it to _longiflora_. We have followed the latter name that ours may go in unison with the author of the last Species plantarum now publishing by Willdenow, as well as professor Martyn, who in his edition of Miller’s Dictionary has followed Swartz; they appearing to be the most accurate, as well as the most read and followed of any modern Botanical authorities. It is a tender hot-house plant, strikes easily from cuttings, thrives in rich mould and flowers about the end of February. To the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Valentia we are indebted, for the specimen from which our figure was taken, sent from his Lordship’s famed collection at Arley near Bewdley, Staffordshire; where, we believe, it has flowered for the first time in England.

CLASS XVII. ORDER IV.

_DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA._ Chives in two sets. Ten Chives.

CALYX. Perianthium monophyllum, tuberculis punctatum, quinquesidum; laciniis acutis, æqualibus, persistentibus; infima duplo longiore.

COROLLA papilionacea, pentapetala.

_Vexillum_ subrotundum, emarginatum, assurgens.

_Alœ_ lunulatæ, obtusæ, parvæ.

_Carina_ dipetala, lunulata, obtusa.

STAMINA. Filamenta diadelpha (simplex setaceum et novem coalita), adscendentia. Antheræ subrotundæ.

PISTILLUM. Germen lineare. Stylus subulatus, adscendens, longitudine staminum. Stigma obtusum.

PERICARPIUM. Legumen longitudine calycis, compressum, adscendens, acuminatum.

SEMEN unicum, reniforme.

EMPALEMENT. Cup one leaf, dotted over with small tubercles, and five-cleft; the segments equal and remaining, the lower one twice the length of the others.

BLOSSOM butterfly-shaped, five petalled.

_Standard_ nearly round, notched at the end, turned upwards.

_Wings_ half-moon-shaped, obtuse, small.

_Keel_ two-petalled, half-moon-shaped, obtuse.

CHIVES. Threads in two sets (a single one like a bristle, and nine united), ascending. Tips nearly round.

POINTAL. Seed-bud linear. Shaft awl-shaped, ascending, the length of the chives. Summit blunt.

SEED-VESSEL. A pod the length of the cup, flattened, ascending, and tapered to the point.

SEED, one, kidney-shaped.

Psoralea foliis ternatis, minimis, confertissimis, recurvatis, in spinulam desinentibus.

Psoralea with three-leafletted leaves, very small, very crowded, bent back, and ending in a small spine.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

2. The Standard of a Blossom.

3. One of the Wings of the same.

4. The two Petals of the Keel.

5. The Chives, a little magnified.

The Prickly Psoralea is not a new plant in our collections; for, it was first introduced by Mr. F. Masson to the Royal Gardens at Kew, as we learn from the Catalogue, in the year 1774. But although so long a sojourner with us, it is not found in many collections, owing to the difficulty in its increase, as it seldom ripens its seeds; and cuttings, the only remaining method, but seldom succeed; although by taking them from a vigorous growing plant and giving them the assistance of the bark-bed of the hothouse, early in March, a few plants have been procured occasionally. Our drawing was made from a most beautiful plant in the Clapham Collection, last year, in the month of August.

GLADIOLUS CUSPIDATUS.

_Spear-spotted Gladiolus._

_TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Three Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

COROLLA sexpartita, ringens. Stamina adscendentia.

BLOSSOM six divisions, gaping. Chives ascending.

See GLADIOLUS ROSEUS. Plate XI. Vol. I.

Gladiolus foliis lineari-ensiformibus, glabris; corolla ringente; laciniis longissimis, acuminatis, undulatis, subæqualibus, tribus inferioribus in medio macula oblonga notatis.

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Henry Cranke Andrews, who styled himself “Botanical Painter Engraver, &c.,” produced these volumes as a repository for plants that were genuinely new to British gardens around 1800. The excerpts show a work organized around single plates, each accompanied by a full Linnaean diagnosis in Latin and English, a reference to the plate’s numbered details, and a brief narrative of the plant’s introduction. Andrews does not simply describe; he argues for correct names, scolds misidentified figures in other publications, and records the exact nurserymen who first flowered a species in Britain. The result is a hybrid of scientific monograph, horticultural record, and personal polemic.

Linnaean Formalities and Practical Botany

Each entry opens with a full generic and specific character in the Linnaean style, printed in Latin and then translated into English. The translation is literal and mechanical: “Calyx. Perianthium hexaphyllum” becomes “Empalement. Cup six-leaved.” This dual-language format served readers who might not read Latin but needed to follow the system. Andrews then adds a “Reference to the Plate,” numbering the dissected parts—a flower cut open, a seed-bud sliced transversely—so that the engraving and text function as a single analytical unit. The descriptions are not merely ornamental; they are keys to identification.

Naming Disputes and Authorial Voice

Andrews frequently intervenes in botanical nomenclature. In the entry for Hillia longiflora, he explains that Jacquin originally called the species parasitica, but Swartz denied it was parasitic and renamed it longiflora. Andrews sides with Swartz, Willdenow, and Martyn, calling them “the most accurate, as well as the most read and followed.” In the Massonia entry, he predicts that a future magazine will mislabel his rough-leaved species as “smooth-leaved,” and sarcastically notes that a previous figure of his with “obovate, blunt-ended” leaves was “by a certain hocus-pocus conjuror” converted into “sword shaped!” He ends with the Latin tag risum teneatis (“could you help laughing?”). These asides reveal a combative author defending his accuracy.

Greenhouse Cultivation and Plant Provenance

Each entry records where and when a plant entered British cultivation. Hillia longiflora arrived from Barbados in 1789, sent by Mr. J. Elcock to the Hammersmith nursery of Lee and Kennedy. Massonia pustulata was introduced from the Cape of Good Hope in 1796 and first flowered at the same nursery in 1800. Andrews gives practical advice: a loamy soil with sandy peat, keeping bulbs dry after leaf decay, and not repotting until growth resumes. These details anchor the plates in the material world of late-eighteenth-century horticulture—the networks of collectors, nurserymen, and gardeners who made new plants available.

Readers should approach these volumes as a period document of botanical practice around 1800, not as a modern field guide. The engravings are the core; the text is a companion that records disputes, credits, and cultivation tips. Andrews’ voice—learned, opinionated, and occasionally sarcastic—gives the work a personality rare in scientific writing of the time. The excerpts suggest that the full book will reward those interested in the history of plant introduction, Linnaean classification, and the visual culture of natural history.

There’s a quiet patience in those old botanical plates, each flower pinned to its page like a fixed moment of discovery. It reminded me of standing on a trail, trying to name every peak and meadow before the fog rolled in. That same careful attention lives in Mount Rainier, a Record of Exploration — Story, Setting & Ideas, where wonder keeps its own slow pace.