Specimens of sea weed, circa 1840?
- Title(s):
- Specimens of sea weed.
- Additional Title(s):
Specimens of seaweed
Seaweed- Published/Created:
- Great Britain, circa 1840?
- Physical Description:
- 1 volume (56 leaves) ; 24 cm
- Holdings:
- Rare Books and ManuscriptsSH390.5.G7 S43 1840+ OversizeYale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund[Request]
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Full Orbis Record:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/8151516
- Classification:
- Archives & Manuscripts
- Notes:
- Restricted fragile material. Use requires permission of the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts.
Bound in contemporary half calf, with patterned paper boards and endpapers. Spine title, in ms., on paper label: Seaweed.
Of green leaf, bird, and flower: artists' books and the natural world, p. 58
Album of over 100 specimens of marine algae, mounted and arranged across 56 leaves. The collector, collecting area, and dates of collection are unknown. Specimens are mounted on the verso of each leaf (rectos are blank), with from one to three specimens per leaf (occasionally more). Most specimens are held in place by an additional mounted band of paper on which the Latin genus and species names of the specimens are recorded in pen and brown ink. Occasionally the common English name of the specimen is also given; sometimes neither Latin nor English names are provided.
The specimens include many varieties of algae and include species of Delesseria, Conferva, Nitophyllum, Ulva, Gigartina, Porphyra, Plocamium, Sphaceluria, Plocamium, Flustra, Coralline, Sertularia, Antennularia, Fucus, Bryopsis, Rhodomenia, Laurencia, Cladostephus, Halydris, Chondrus, Polysiphonia, Sordaria, and Gigartina. Many specimens retain a fairly strong suggestion of their original color.
The title leaf contains a dense collection of specimens arranged into a cut out gilt paper urn, under which is written four lines of a poem beginning, "Call us not weeds, we are flowers of the sea." The earliest known appearance of the poem is 1833: the first two lines are quoted, without attribution, in The Dublin University magazine (v. 1, p. 685). The poem subsequently appeared in Mary Matilda Howard's Ocean flowers and their teachings (1847). It also appeared in Elegant arts for ladies (1856), where it was attributed Elizabeth L. Aveline, of Lyme Regis. - Subject Terms:
- Botanical specimens -- Collection and preservation -- Great Britain.Botanical specimens -- Great Britain -- Specimens.Marine algae -- Collection and preservation -- Great Britain.Marine algae -- Great Britain -- Specimens.Pressed flower pictures.
- Form/Genre:
- Herbaria.
Albums (books)
Botanical illustrations. - Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
"Of Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower" : Artists' Books and the Natural World (Yale Center for British Art, May 15, 2014-August 10, 2014) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
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