Author: Barrie Edward Juniper
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781851242771
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book Here
Book Description
In the early seventeenth century there was eager interest, among the leisured classes, in fruits from the Mediterranean and beyond, not least for the kitchen gardens and orchards of England's grand houses. The volume of charming, vibrant, almost primitif watercolour paintings of orchard fruits on the branch, popularly known as 'Tradescants' Orchard', is a precious and fragile relic of this era of broadening horticultural horizons.This manuscript, traditionally associated with the renowned plantsmen, the John Tradescants, was among the eclectic collections of Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), which came to form the basis of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Then, in 1860 it was transferred to the Bodleian Library. It has been quietly recognized as a mysterious treasure, yet the paintings raise many unanswered questions. Who painted them, and for whom? What was their purpose? Only one apple is represented - were there once others, now missing? Whose handwriting appears in the manuscript? Why did the artist paint wildlife such as birds, frogs and butterflies on many of the folios?All sixty-six of the original illustrations are reproduced here in facsimile for the first time, following a general introduction which maps out the mystery of why and how these beguiling watercolours came to be commissioned and made.
Author: Noel Kingsbury
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226437051
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 510
Get Book Here
Book Description
Disheartened by the shrink-wrapped, Styrofoam-packed state of contemporary supermarket fruits and vegetables, many shoppers hark back to a more innocent time, to visions of succulent red tomatoes plucked straight from the vine, gleaming orange carrots pulled from loamy brown soil, swirling heads of green lettuce basking in the sun. With Hybrid, Noel Kingsbury reveals that even those imaginary perfect foods are themselves far from anything that could properly be called natural; rather, they represent the end of a millennia-long history of selective breeding and hybridization. Starting his story at the birth of agriculture, Kingsbury traces the history of human attempts to make plants more reliable, productive, and nutritious—a story that owes as much to accident and error as to innovation and experiment. Drawing on historical and scientific accounts, as well as a rich trove of anecdotes, Kingsbury shows how scientists, amateur breeders, and countless anonymous farmers and gardeners slowly caused the evolutionary pressures of nature to be supplanted by those of human needs—and thus led us from sparse wild grasses to succulent corn cobs, and from mealy, white wild carrots to the juicy vegetables we enjoy today. At the same time, Kingsbury reminds us that contemporary controversies over the Green Revolution and genetically modified crops are not new; plant breeding has always had a political dimension. A powerful reminder of the complicated and ever-evolving relationship between humans and the natural world, Hybrid will give readers a thoughtful new perspective on—and a renewed appreciation of—the cereal crops, vegetables, fruits, and flowers that are central to our way of life.
Author: Mea Allan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Horticulture
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Patricia Phillippy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108422985
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Get Book Here
Book Description
A study of remembrance in post-Reformation England in religious and secular artworks and texts by Shakespeare, Milton, and women writers.
Author: David Alric Berry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781854442819
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book Here
Book Description
Throughout its history, the Ashmolean has evolved to meet changing needs and reflect new ideas. In the process, it has transformed from a cabinet of curiosities, representing the world in microcosm, to a museum of art and archaeology, illustrating conne
Author: Shirley Sherwood
Publisher: George Weidenfeld & Nicholson
ISBN: 9780297822707
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Get Book Here
Book Description
Presents a collection of botanical paintings along with descriptions of the artists' techniques and backgrounds.
Author: Barry Juniper
Publisher: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
ISBN: 9781842466551
Category : Apples
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book Here
Book Description
"This is a new edition of the book published under the title Story of the apple, 2006"--Title page verso.
Author: Ben Marsh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108418287
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 503
Get Book Here
Book Description
Reveals how commodity failure, as much as success, can shed light on aspirations, environment, and economic life in colonial societies.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780500234860
Category : Botanical illustration
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Eric Parker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Surrey (England)
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Get Book Here
Book Description
