Pithecellobium bahamense and tiger swallowtail
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 branch of Pithecellobium bahamense, referred to here as Acacia foliis amplioribus, and a tiger swallowtail, Papilio glaucus, referred to here as Papilio diurna.
Written in the associated description: 'The Leaves are like those of the Phillirea, growing by Pairs. The Flowers are globular, composed of numerous scarlet Filaments, produced from small green Capsila's; many of the Flowers grow together on long Footstalks, at the Ends of slender Branches'.
Plate 97 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: 'The Leaves are like those of the Phillirea, growing by Pairs. The Flowers are globular, composed of numerous scarlet Filaments, produced from small green Capsila's; many of the Flowers grow together on long Footstalks, at the Ends of slender Branches'.
Plate 97 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