Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.16223

    Plant flowers

    Date
    1674
    Creator
    Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694, Italian) , Physician
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p121r
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 318mm
    width (page): 230mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
          > flower
    Description
    Sectional studies of the flowers of various plant species viewed under magnification, including:

    Figure 126 [upper left]: Almond tree, Prunus amygdalus, cherry tree, Cerasum, apricot tree Prunus armeniaca, and peach tree, Prunus persica, referred to by Malpighi as Amygdalis, Cerasis, Malisq, Armeniacis, and Persicis respectively.
    Figure 127 & 129 [upper centre]: Medlar tree, Mespilus germanica, referred to as Mespilis.
    Figure 128 [centre right]: Reed, Phragmites , referred to as Avena.
    Figure 130 [lower left]: Passiflora, referred to as Maracot Indorum.
    Figure 131 [centre left]: Bramble, Rubus, referred to as Rubo.
    Figure 132 [lower right]: Poppy, Papaver, referred to as Opium.

    Each drawn on an individual slip of paper and arranged on the page for printing. Inscribed: ‘Tab. XXIII’ in top right-hand corner.

    Page 121 from MS/103/1, later published as Tab. XXIII in Marcello Malpighi's Anatome plantarum (1675).

    Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694), Italian biologist and physician, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1669.
    Object history
    Marcello Malpighi’s research on the anatomy of plants was encouraged and supported by the Royal Society, as evidenced by correspondence between him and the then-Secretary, Henry Oldenburg FRS (1619-1677) in the 1660s and 1670s [MS/103/1].

    An abstracted version of his work in this area was first read at a Society meeting on 7 December 1671 [JBO/4, pp.216-217]. The full manuscript of Anatome Plantarum, together with the frontispiece artwork and these plates, was received and read on 28 January 1674/75 [MS/103/1-2].

    It was ordered for printing by the Society’s printer John Martin in June 1675 [CMO/1/221]. The published work consists of the text of Anatome Plantarum and De ovo incubato as an appendix, and 61 plates illustrating each [54 and 7 respectively].
    Related fellows
    Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694, Italian) , Physician
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Italy
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