Illustration: This beautiful collection of old botanical drawings will knock your socks off

Date
7 March 2014

I wish somebody had told me back when I was struggling ardently with biological diagrams in my year eight science classes that they could be as beautiful as these are. This selection of botanical illustrations is from a collection called The Families of Flowering Plants by L. Wattson and M.J. Dallwitz, and we stumbled across them on lovely Chinese blog Waterfall. They’re the epitome of “accidentally wonderful”; delicate down to the very last detail and perfectly coloured in a way that you just can’t replicate digitally, they’re the kind of image I’d like to fashion into a kind of wallpaper and cover the walls of my flat with.

The scientific descriptions, on the other hand, are Greek to me; all “axillary inflorescence” and “fascicled racemes,” so it’s a good thing I’m happy to leave the botany to the pros and sit back and admire the illustration instead.

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L. Wattson and M.J. Dallwitz: Botanical Drawings

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L. Wattson and M.J. Dallwitz: Botanical Drawings

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L. Wattson and M.J. Dallwitz: Botanical Drawings

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L. Wattson and M.J. Dallwitz: Botanical Drawings

Above

L. Wattson and M.J. Dallwitz: Botanical Drawings

Above

L. Wattson and M.J. Dallwitz: Botanical Drawings

Above

L. Wattson and M.J. Dallwitz: Botanical Drawings

Above

L. Wattson and M.J. Dallwitz: Botanical Drawings

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About the Author

Maisie Skidmore

Maisie joined It’s Nice That fresh out of university in the summer of 2013 as an intern before joining full time as an Assistant Editor. Maisie left It’s Nice That in July 2015.

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