Vivisection. Pelargonium quercifolium, Oak-leaved Geranium, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Here's another one of those wonderful Pelargoniums of southern Africa. It was first described at the end of the eighteenth century, and soon became loved by all gardeners. One of these was Stephen West Williams (1790-1855). In his Botanical Description (1817) he waxes eloquent on this Oak-leaved Geranium, and manages in his description to refer to the unpleasantness of the vivisection of animals:
'in [this Geranium] the student of chemistry … will see how imperfect is his art in comparison with natural chemistry, which distills from the earth and conveys by distinct channels, in its small stems, all that is necessary to produce foliage, flowers, and fruit, together with color, smell, and taste, the most opposite fluids and liquids being separated only by divisions so small as scarcely to be deemed a substance. And the research into the wonders of this, as well as every other species of vegetation, may be entered into without hurting the sensibility of the most tender feeling, as plants and roots may be dissected without those disagreeable sensations, which follow the dissection of animals.'
Vivisection. Pelargonium quercifolium, Oak-leaved Geranium, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Here's another one of those wonderful Pelargoniums of southern Africa. It was first described at the end of the eighteenth century, and soon became loved by all gardeners. One of these was Stephen West Williams (1790-1855). In his Botanical Description (1817) he waxes eloquent on this Oak-leaved Geranium, and manages in his description to refer to the unpleasantness of the vivisection of animals:
'in [this Geranium] the student of chemistry … will see how imperfect is his art in comparison with natural chemistry, which distills from the earth and conveys by distinct channels, in its small stems, all that is necessary to produce foliage, flowers, and fruit, together with color, smell, and taste, the most opposite fluids and liquids being separated only by divisions so small as scarcely to be deemed a substance. And the research into the wonders of this, as well as every other species of vegetation, may be entered into without hurting the sensibility of the most tender feeling, as plants and roots may be dissected without those disagreeable sensations, which follow the dissection of animals.'