Aralia Pentaphylla Shrub with Flower and Fruit Details Lithograph, 1858

This is an original antique botanical print, a lithograph printed in a single soft olive gray tone without added color, lettered "ARALIA PENTAPHYLLA Thunb." The drawing shows a whole branching shrub: a woody stem with knotted joints, leaves divided into five pointed leaflets, and small round heads of flowers on long stalks at the top and sides. Along the foot eleven numbered details show the flower, the fruit whole and in section, and the seeds at a larger scale.

The name is lettered in capitals with the authority "Thunb." (Thunberg). At lower left the faint artist's line reads "Q. M. R. Ver Hùell, ad. Scc. del., 1854." (drawn by Q. M. R. Ver Huell, 1854), and at lower right "L. Stroobant, Sc. & lith. à Gand." (engraved and lithographed by L. Stroobant in Ghent). No plate number is printed on this plate.

The plate comes from the first volume of the Annales d'horticulture et de botanique, ou Flore des jardins du royaume des Pays-Bas, published at Leiden by A. W. Sythoff in 1858 for the Société royale d'horticulture des Pays-Bas under the patronage of King William III. The title page of this volume names Ph. Fr. de Siebold and W. H. de Vriese as its editors. The work recorded cultivated and ornamental plants grown in the Netherlands and introduced from the Dutch possessions in the East Indies, from America and from Japan. Q. M. R. Ver Huell (1787 to 1860), the Dutch naval officer and artist, drew a number of the plates for the first volume. L. Stroobant was a lithographer working in Ghent (Gand in French).

Printed in a single soft tone, it suits a quiet frame with a pale mount and works well beside colored plates from the same work.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.