Sundaze: Xerochrysum bracteatum, Kruidtuin, Antwerp, Belgium
A sudden crack and a shudder: at about 11 PM on June 11, 1770. HMS Edeavour, commander Captain James Cook, ran onto the Great Barrier Reef just off Australia. From 1768 he'd safely managed the bark from Madeira to Rio de Janeiro, through southernmost Tierra del Fuego to New Zealand, and now atop the coral mass of the Great Reef.
The Endeavour lowered its sails and tried to anchor-pull itself off the reef but to no avail. Only at high tide did she come loose but was making water. Quickly all hands - including the now famous botanists Joseph Banks (1743-1820), Daniel Carlsson Solander (1733-1782) and Herman Diedrich Spöring (1733-1771) - manned the pumps. The Endeavour with its enormous collection of natural specimens put together during the past two years managed to stay afloat. She was moored at the Bay of Inlets, now the Endeavour River, for repairs. It was found that a piece of sharp coral the size of a man's fist had sliced through the hull and was - thankfully - wedged there. If the hole had been larger the vessel would most probably have sunk together with its rich natural collection.
Now - while she was being repaired - our intrepid naturalists set about enriching their collection. Between June 17 and August 3 they brought together a hugely variegated set of natural specimens from Eastern Australia. One of these was this Everlasting Daisy, also called a Paper Daisy or Golden Bract or just plainly Straw Flower.
It was almost immediately drawn in outline by the gifted Quaker botanical illustrator Sydney Parkinson (c.1745-1771), also a member of Banks's naturalist team. Neither Parkinson nor Spöring lived to see an enthusiastic European reception of their work. Both died at sea of dysentry on the way to Cape Town, South Africa. But their Straw Flower survived, and it was soon cultivated at Kew and disseminated throughout Europe.
Each time I look at strawflowers I remember these intrepid nature lovers who did their work in the most cramped and inconvenient of circumstances in constant fear that their collections would not survive the sea voyage. But they never lost their good humor.
This photo was taken in the Kruidtuin of Antwerp, associated with St Elisabeth's hospital as a herbal garden ever since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The day was overcast, but this Sundaze sparkled!
Sundaze: Xerochrysum bracteatum, Kruidtuin, Antwerp, Belgium
A sudden crack and a shudder: at about 11 PM on June 11, 1770. HMS Edeavour, commander Captain James Cook, ran onto the Great Barrier Reef just off Australia. From 1768 he'd safely managed the bark from Madeira to Rio de Janeiro, through southernmost Tierra del Fuego to New Zealand, and now atop the coral mass of the Great Reef.
The Endeavour lowered its sails and tried to anchor-pull itself off the reef but to no avail. Only at high tide did she come loose but was making water. Quickly all hands - including the now famous botanists Joseph Banks (1743-1820), Daniel Carlsson Solander (1733-1782) and Herman Diedrich Spöring (1733-1771) - manned the pumps. The Endeavour with its enormous collection of natural specimens put together during the past two years managed to stay afloat. She was moored at the Bay of Inlets, now the Endeavour River, for repairs. It was found that a piece of sharp coral the size of a man's fist had sliced through the hull and was - thankfully - wedged there. If the hole had been larger the vessel would most probably have sunk together with its rich natural collection.
Now - while she was being repaired - our intrepid naturalists set about enriching their collection. Between June 17 and August 3 they brought together a hugely variegated set of natural specimens from Eastern Australia. One of these was this Everlasting Daisy, also called a Paper Daisy or Golden Bract or just plainly Straw Flower.
It was almost immediately drawn in outline by the gifted Quaker botanical illustrator Sydney Parkinson (c.1745-1771), also a member of Banks's naturalist team. Neither Parkinson nor Spöring lived to see an enthusiastic European reception of their work. Both died at sea of dysentry on the way to Cape Town, South Africa. But their Straw Flower survived, and it was soon cultivated at Kew and disseminated throughout Europe.
Each time I look at strawflowers I remember these intrepid nature lovers who did their work in the most cramped and inconvenient of circumstances in constant fear that their collections would not survive the sea voyage. But they never lost their good humor.
This photo was taken in the Kruidtuin of Antwerp, associated with St Elisabeth's hospital as a herbal garden ever since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The day was overcast, but this Sundaze sparkled!