Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.17654
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    Moon orchid

    Date
    1838
    Creator
    S Watts (British) , Engraver
    After
    Sarah Anne Drake (1803 - 1857, British) , Illustrator
    Object type
    Library reference
    49461
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 247mm
    width (print): 150mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Botany
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
    Description
    Botanical study of the Moon orchid Phalaenopsis amabilis, here referred to as the Indian butterfly-plant. The plant is native to India and southeast Asia, including Indonesia and the Philippines. The plate shows the full plant, including flowers, leaves, sheaths, pseudobulb and roots.

    Plate 34 from Edwards’s botanical register…edited by John Lindley, new series v.1, (London, James Ridgway and Sons, 1838). The plate is inscribed ‘34’ above; and below ‘Miss Drake del. Pub by J. Ridgway, 169 Piccadilly July 1. 1838. S. Watts sc.’

    In the associated text, the author states that: ‘This very rare and beautiful epiphyte flowered a few weeks since in the Epiphyte-house of Messrs. Rollisons of Tooting, I believe for the first time in Europe. It had been sent to them from Manilla by Mr. Cuming.’

    John Lindley (1799-1865) British botanist and horticulturalist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1828.

    Sarah Anne Drake (1803-1857), British botanical artist, was a long-term associate of the Lindley family and a prolific illustrator for James Lindley.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Asia
          > Indonesia
    <The World>
       > Asia
          > Philippines
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