Pigeonplum and hickory horned devil
Date
1731
Creator
Mark Catesby (1683 - 1749, British) , Naturalist
Object type
Library reference
18894
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 355mm
width (print): 265mm
width (print): 265mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Study of a pigeonplum specimen, Coccoloba diversifolia, referred to here as Cerasus latiore folio, and a hickory horned devil caterpillar, Citheronia regalis, referred to here as Eruca maxima cornuta.
Written in the associated description: 'This is a large Tree with a smooth light coloured Bark, the Leaves are about the Size of those of a Pear, but more rounding at the Points. The Fruit is round, and grows in Bunches, like Currans, but larger, and of a purple Colour'.
Plate 94 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733.
Written in the associated description: 'This is a large Tree with a smooth light coloured Bark, the Leaves are about the Size of those of a Pear, but more rounding at the Points. The Fruit is round, and grows in Bunches, like Currans, but larger, and of a purple Colour'.
Plate 94 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733.
Object history
The Natural History was originally published in 10 parts, intended to be bound in 2 volumes. It was the earliest western scientific description of the flora and fauna of North America, and its copper plates were etched and hand-coloured by Catesby himself.
Catesby’s trips to North America were funded by a group of sponsors, many of whom were colonial governors, charged with managing the British Empire’s territories, and their support of Catesby’s research can be read as an exercise in colonial control. As The Natural History’s parts were issued it also became important as a reference text to naturalists attempting to order the natural world according to the ambitious taxonomic systems that characterized the mid-18th century.
Catesby’s trips to North America were funded by a group of sponsors, many of whom were colonial governors, charged with managing the British Empire’s territories, and their support of Catesby’s research can be read as an exercise in colonial control. As The Natural History’s parts were issued it also became important as a reference text to naturalists attempting to order the natural world according to the ambitious taxonomic systems that characterized the mid-18th century.
Associated place