Description
Plants are typically thought of as beautiful, but they can also be deadly, bizarre, rare, and iconic. Brought together in a collection of frameable art prints paired with a book detailing their stories, The Botanical Treasury features forty of the world’s most fascinating plants in a beautiful collector’s box. The illustrations are taken from the Kew art collections and archives and include plants painted in human form, such as the mandrake from the early herbals, stunning tulips from the great botanic artist Ehret, the Australian plant named after Sir Joseph Banks who traveled with James Cook, iconic Japanese lilies by Honzu Zufu, and much more. The Botanical Treasury unveils these plants’ intriguing stories; how they were discovered by intrepid travelers, described, and transported around the globe.
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For centuries, an eclectic group of plants have captivated the world and propelled explorers to extraordinary lengths to collect them. Now, The Botanical Treasury brings together centuries of botanical adventures and discoveries in one sumptuous collection.This treasury features a full-color exploration of our most important and interesting plants; facsimiles of rarely seen letters, maps, and journals from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; and forty beautifully reproduced, frameable prints. Together they offer a fascinating look at the world of plant hunting and the cultivation of our knowledge about the plant world.Every one of the featured plants is extraordinary in some way, be it for its appearance, biology, medicinal properties, or importance to economics, politics, or the arts. Equally extraordinary are the stories associated with the discovery of these plants, revealing the lengths to which collectors and growers would go to find them. The entries build a history of botany and paint a larger picture of the age of exploration.The Botanical Treasury is a rare treat. Looking through its pages and relishing its prints allows us to fully understand why we are so driven to learn all we can about the natural world. It is an exceptional gift that will wow gardeners, and anyone else fascinated by the greenery that sustains and inspires us.
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