'Melocactus Mexicanus'
Date
c.1730
Creator
William Sartorius (1695, British)
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height: 375mm
length: 270mm
length: 270mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Botanical study of Melocactus Mexicanus, also known as Mexican melon-thistle cactus. This plant is native to Mexico. Painting shows close up of the globe shaped green cactus plant from above, covered with spines.
Painting 30 from MS/109, a collection of botanical paintings by Jacob van Huysum and William Sartorius.
Inscribed in ink 'Melocactus Mexicanus, spinis creberrimis, corallinis, latis & recurvis Houst.' Also inscribed in different ink 'W Sartorius deli [delineavit - drew]'.
Specimens of this plant were first brought to Britain from Mexico by Dr William Houstoun.
William Sartorius (flourished in the early to mid 17th century), British botanical painter, was not a Fellow of the Royal Society. Sartorius was one of the illustrators of the Historia Plantarum Rariorum (1728-1737) written by John Martyn FRS.
Painting 30 from MS/109, a collection of botanical paintings by Jacob van Huysum and William Sartorius.
Inscribed in ink 'Melocactus Mexicanus, spinis creberrimis, corallinis, latis & recurvis Houst.' Also inscribed in different ink 'W Sartorius deli [delineavit - drew]'.
Specimens of this plant were first brought to Britain from Mexico by Dr William Houstoun.
William Sartorius (flourished in the early to mid 17th century), British botanical painter, was not a Fellow of the Royal Society. Sartorius was one of the illustrators of the Historia Plantarum Rariorum (1728-1737) written by John Martyn FRS.
Associated place