'Tithymaloides lauro-cerasi folio'

Date

[c.1735]

Creator

Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708 - 1770, German)

Object type

painting

Archive reference number

MS/668/31

Material

ink
watercolour
paper

Dimensions

height (painting): 539mm
width (painting): 377mm

Subject

Biology
> Botany

Content object

nature
> plant

Description

Botanical study of Tithymaloides lauro-cerasi folio, non ferrato [modern taxonomy Pedilanthus tithymaloides, also known by names including Euphorbia tithymaloides and the myrtle-leaved spurge. native to tropical and subtropical North America and Central America. The study shows the stalk, leaves and flower of the perennial succulent plant, with further detail of two flowers, one partially open, and one revealing the stamen.

Inscribed in ink across the bottom of the image with the name of the specimen ‘Tithymaloides lauro-cerasi folio, non ferrato’, and in the right hand corner with the signature of the artist ‘G. D. Ehret fec [fecit]'.

Georg Dionysius Ehret was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1757.

Object history

Part of a collection of 35 botanical paintings by Georg Dionysius Ehret and Jacobus van Huysum, primarily of Aloes, depicting specimens from the yearly collection sent by the Society of Apothecaries Physic Garden at Chelsea to the Royal Society. This means of capturing the specimens was initially proposed by Taylor White who presented a collection of watercolours by van Huysum in 1734. Philip Miller (1691 – 1771), Gardener to the Society of Apothecaries and Fellow of the Royal Society, was asked by the Council to select the plants to be preserved in this way in 1734, and references to this commission occur in the Society records up to 1737.

Associated place

<The World>
   > Europe
      > United Kingdom
         > London
<The World>
   > North America
<The World>
   > Central America