Willow tree branch
Date
18 October 1659
Creator
Unknown, Artist
After
John Beale (1608 - 1687, British) , Science writer
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p486
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 196mm
width (page): 155mm
width (page): 155mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Botanical diagram of the branch of a wilby tree (willow) misshapen into spiral growth by being forced into poor ground, as described by John Beale. From among the papers of Robert Boyle.
Transcription
Title of section (p.447): ‘Concerning the Transmutation & improvements of Plants.’
Accompanying text reads: ‘By setting a wilby tree in a stony ground, where the growing root was distressed, but stove of fountaine water; the leaves were strangely altered, being blown up like a bladder in the middle. And a Sally [willow] (by compression in the ascent of the sap) send forth branches of a popinjay greene, not round, nor square, but flat, yet all circling round like a ram’s horne thus [sketch appears here] so that beholders could not guesse what plant it was.’
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Accompanying text reads: ‘By setting a wilby tree in a stony ground, where the growing root was distressed, but stove of fountaine water; the leaves were strangely altered, being blown up like a bladder in the middle. And a Sally [willow] (by compression in the ascent of the sap) send forth branches of a popinjay greene, not round, nor square, but flat, yet all circling round like a ram’s horne thus [sketch appears here] so that beholders could not guesse what plant it was.’
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Related fellows
John Beale (1608 - 1687, British) , Clergyman
Associated place