if you are interested in historical graphics of brugmansias this might be of interest:

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypl...ID=1110797  

 

One of the first graphics of Brugmansia suaveolens which was introduced by the french botanist Dombey to France. He was part of the Ruiz-Pavon expedition to Ecuador. You should also have a look on the name!

oh, sehr schön, das gefällt mir.

Here is the one which was wrongly published by  the spanish  botanists Ruiz and Pavon in Flora Peruviana et Chilensis. It was later the basis  for the establishment of Brugmansia x candida.

Flora Peruviana et Chilensis vol. 2 plate 128 :

www.illustratedgarden.org/mobot/rarebooks/page.asp?relation=QK253R98317981802V2&identifier=0261

 

Wow! That first picture in the post is GORGEOUS!!!! I love how you can tell the artist romanced the picture. I can see the painter spent time studying the flower. Love it!!

....i couldn't get the link to open though

Thanks RJ - it seems that the editor shortens the link. I have now inserted the full link.
I agree with you that those old graphics are brilliant in detail.

Todays Brugmansia arborea - a plant of it was introduced to Kew Gardens and later published in Curtis' Botanical Magazine:

Thanks for re-posting the link, Helmut. I'm glad to see this one as well, which shows a split style. This is interesting, because I've come across this once or twice before and assumed it was a aberration in the plant. The pod appearance looks a little odd on this second one, but makes me wonder if we don't have this hybrid line anymore, since pods are great indicators of origins.

The arborea is STUNNING!!

love the art work of these 2 this is the stuff that i like to have on my family room
Thanks for the posts

Helmut, that 1819 Duhamel du Monceau plate of B. suaveolens is indeed very beautiful! It was, as you doubtless know, done by the brilliant Pancrace Bessa, who was a colleague of the now much more famous Redouté.

There are some considerably earlier illustrations of this species, but only the Spanish one from 1791, by Manuel Muñoz de Ugena, approaches this quality. There is also a fascinating one done in eastern Brazil ca. 1785 by J.M. Vellozo (but not published until after his death) in the most severe diagrammatic style!

Alistair, I know that there others - but this from Duhamel I think is important as it traces different ways of introduction of the plant to europe.

here is the link to that of Manuel Muñoz de Ugena (I hope that this link works from outside europe):

http://books.google.at/books?id=Rx4...ra&f=false

Yes It is curious how it has erect flowers!

The erect flowers might shock - but I know that it had been a good tradition in France and Spain to arrange new species or uncommon species that way for painting or engraving.

LOL

Here is one of B. sanguinea which was published in Bot. Reg. 1739, 1835:

http://delta-intkey.com/angio/images/breg1739.jpg