Book review: Capturing Flora
Photo - Capturing Flora, Florilegium Books
Capturing Flora
The West Australian beauty exploding from the cover of Capturing Flora is Eucalyptus macrocarpa. The illustration is by Walter Fitch for a 1947 edition of Curtis' Botanical Magazine. Fitch used as his model a plant that had been grown from seed by the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, William Hooker. It was Hooker who named the plant, using the Greek 'makros' meaning large, and 'karkpos' meaning fruit, to describe the plant's incredible, bowl-shaped gumnuts.This is just one tiny story from this beautiful history of 300 years of Australian botanical art. Whether you caught the exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, or its follow-up art the SH Ervin in Sydney, you'll love getting a closer look at the images, and their stories, lavishly collected between these covers.
Photo - Capturing Flora, Florilegium Books
You'll find it at Florilegium, www.florilegium.com.au, $69.99.
Text: Linda Ross
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Date: 24 February 2015 Author: Linda RossGarden Helpline
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