Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.17975

    'Cassia Bahamensis'

    Date
    c.1730
    Creator
    Jacob van Huysum (1682 - 1745, Dutch) , Painter
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height: 370mm
    width: 270mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
          > flower
    Description
    Botanical study of a specimen of cassia, genus senna. This plant is native throughout the tropics. Painting shows a branch of yellow flowering plant, with flowers open and in bud, and green leaves.

    Painting 27 from MS/109, a collection of botanical paintings by Jacob van Huysum and William Sartorius.

    Inscribed in ink 'Cassia Bahamensis pinnis foliorum mucronatis angustis calyce floris non reflexo, Martyn. Hist. Rar. Plant. Dec. 2: original draw.' Not signed.

    This plant is described by John Martyn FRS in the Historia Plantarum Rariorum (1728-1737). It was introduced to England from the Bahamas by the naturalist Mark Catesby FRS in 1726.

    Jacob van Huysum (1682-1745), Dutch botanical painter, was not a Fellow of the Royal Society. He produced most of the 50 illustrations for the Historia Plantarum Rariorum, and all the drawings for Philip Miller’s Catalogus Plantarum (1730), an index of trees, shrubs, plants and flowers.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
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