Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.17979

    'Cereus crassissimus'

    Date
    c.1730
    Creator
    William Sartorius (1695, British) , Painter
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
    Description
    Botanical study of cereus, or ceroid cactus, also known as torch thistle. This plant is native to the Americas. Painting shows tall cactus plant with spines, and long roots spread out below.

    Painting 31 from MS/109, a collection of botanical paintings by Jacob van Huysum and William Sartorius.

    Inscribed in ink 'Cereus crassissimus, spinis tenuioribus, flavescentibus, fructu sphaerico laevi Houst.' Also inscribed in different ink 'W Sartorius deli: [delineavit]'.

    Specimens of this plant were first brought to Britain by Dr William Houstoun.

    William Sartorius (fl. 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
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          > United Kingdom
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