Purity. White Flag-Iris, Diplarrena moraea, Bruny Island, Tasmania, Australia
In his account of the Voyage he made under Bruni d'Entrecasteaux to find some sign of the lost French 'La Pérouse' expedition, Jacques Julien Houtou de Labillardière (1755-1834) waxes euphoric over the beauty of this flower. He found it somewhere along the D'Entrecasteaux Channel in southern Tasmania in May 1792. Immediately - as a good botanist - he sees the difference with European varieties of the Iris family and thus names his discovery 'Diplarrena'.
The Voyage is much worth a read and it is quite exciting too: Labillardière describes almost every adventurous footstep he and his companions took and intersperses his story with fine scientific descriptions of the naturalia encountered - including tales of scary wild animals. There's a good translation into English published in 1800 which you can read online.
Purity. White Flag-Iris, Diplarrena moraea, Bruny Island, Tasmania, Australia
In his account of the Voyage he made under Bruni d'Entrecasteaux to find some sign of the lost French 'La Pérouse' expedition, Jacques Julien Houtou de Labillardière (1755-1834) waxes euphoric over the beauty of this flower. He found it somewhere along the D'Entrecasteaux Channel in southern Tasmania in May 1792. Immediately - as a good botanist - he sees the difference with European varieties of the Iris family and thus names his discovery 'Diplarrena'.
The Voyage is much worth a read and it is quite exciting too: Labillardière describes almost every adventurous footstep he and his companions took and intersperses his story with fine scientific descriptions of the naturalia encountered - including tales of scary wild animals. There's a good translation into English published in 1800 which you can read online.