[gardeners] Fwd: A Gardener's Delight: Curtis's Botanical Magazine
Margaret Lauterbach (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 27 Sep 2002 08:38:07 -0600
>___________________________________________
>
>ARS News Service
>Agricultural Research Service, USDA
>Marcia Wood, (301) 504-1662, MarciaWood@ars.usda.gov
>September 27, 2002
>___________________________________________
>
>Elegant watercolors of hundreds of flowers--from the familiar to the
>unusual--enliven the pages of a historic British gardening journal called
>Curtis's Botanical Magazine. The National Agricultural Library in
>Beltsville, Md., holds one of the most complete collections of this
>periodical, which has been published continuously since 1787.
>
>The library has made the first 26 volumes of the journal available on the
>World Wide Web at:
> http://www.nal.usda.gov/curtis
>
>The magazine was founded by William Curtis, a self-taught botanist who
>wanted to keep avid gardeners in the British Isles well informed about the
>impressive array of flowering plants that could flourish in their gardens
>and greenhouses. The magazine's detailed, accurate and delightful
>illustrations are each accompanied by a narrative about the plant's origin
>and care.
>
>Some issues feature plates of less-common plants such as crimson monarda,
>hairy wachendorfia, sweet-scented tritonia and winged-podded sophora.
>Others display plants with picturesque or amusing names like broad-lipped
>purple side-saddle flower, cobweb houseleek, melancholy toad-flax and
>warty St. John's wort.
>
>In William Curtis' era, the illustrations in his publication were among
>the best means available for professional horticulturists and hobbyist
>gardeners to learn about new plants that were being brought to England
>from throughout the British Empire and other places around the globe.
>Today, researchers can log onto the library-hosted web site to learn more
>about horticultural trends. Home gardeners can visit the site to find the
>perfect accent for a shady path or sunny flower bed.
>
>An article in the September 2002 issue of Agricultural Researchmagazine
>tells more. View it on the World Wide Web at:
>
>http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep02/nal0902.htm
>
>The National Agricultural Library is part of the Agricultural Research
>Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
>agency.
>
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