Sunny Heart. Limnanthes douglasii, Poached Egg Plant, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The day was autumn-glum but Olymp saw some light: this Poached Egg Plant. In 1833 famous English botanist Robert Brown (1773-1858) named it for David Douglas (although in the latinisation of the species name he wrote: 'douglassii'). I've mention Douglas regularly in these pages, e.g. www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/5557704063/in/photolis....
In 1843/1844 the author of The Ladies' Flower Garden, Jane Webb Loudon (1800-1858) who also wrote science fiction, in her short introduction to our plant writes 'A very pretty hardy annual, introduced by poor Douglas, in 1832 from California'. That 'poor' alludes to Douglas's untimely and sticky death in a trap on a mountain in Hawai'i. Incidentally, those botanists enjoyed celebrating each other's egos: Douglas named a mountain in America's west for Brown.
Sunny Heart. Limnanthes douglasii, Poached Egg Plant, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The day was autumn-glum but Olymp saw some light: this Poached Egg Plant. In 1833 famous English botanist Robert Brown (1773-1858) named it for David Douglas (although in the latinisation of the species name he wrote: 'douglassii'). I've mention Douglas regularly in these pages, e.g. www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/5557704063/in/photolis....
In 1843/1844 the author of The Ladies' Flower Garden, Jane Webb Loudon (1800-1858) who also wrote science fiction, in her short introduction to our plant writes 'A very pretty hardy annual, introduced by poor Douglas, in 1832 from California'. That 'poor' alludes to Douglas's untimely and sticky death in a trap on a mountain in Hawai'i. Incidentally, those botanists enjoyed celebrating each other's egos: Douglas named a mountain in America's west for Brown.