eBotanical Prints – July 2022

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20 botanical print books in July. The topics include: plant relations/structures/geography (3), roses, gardens, orchids, ferns, water plants/lilies (3), wildflowers (3), and The Plant World periodicals (7). I will continue to browse The Plant World periodicals into August.  

The whole list of 2,432 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the July 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the July 2022 eBotanical Prints!

Plant relations * Coulter, John Merle * sample image * 1901

Plant Structures * Coulter, John Merle * sample image * 1906

Popular geography of plants; or, A botanical excursion round the world  * Catlow, Maria E.; Daubeny, Charles * sample image * 1855

Roses and their Cultivation * Sanders, Thomas William * sample image * 1917

The Flower Garden * Sanders, Thomas William * sample image * 1919

Select orchidaceous plants [First series] by Robert Warner ; the notes on culture by Benjamin S. Williams. * Warner, Robert * sample image * 1865

Select ferns and lycopods * Williams, Benjamin Samuel * sample image * 1873

The Water Garden * Tricker, William * sample image * 1897

Water-lilies and how to grow them * Conard, Henry S.; Hus, Henry * sample image * 1907

The waterlilies: a monograph of the genus Nymphaea  * Conard, Henry S. * sample image * 1905

Wild flower preservation; a collector's guide * Coley, May; Weatherby, Charles Alfred * sample image * 1915

Useful wild plants of the United States and Canada * Saunders, Charles Francis; Aring, Lucy Hamilton (illustrator) * sample image * 1920

California Wild Flowers * Saunders, Elisabeth Hallowell * sample image * 1905

The Plant World Vol VI 1903 * The Wildflower Preservation Society * sample image * 1903

The Plant World Vol V 1902 * The Wildflower Preservation Society * sample image * 1902

The Plant World Vol IV 1901 * The Wildflower Preservation Society * sample image * 1901

The Plant World Vol III 1900 * The Wildflower Preservation Society * sample image * 1900

The Plant World Vol II 1899 * The Wildflower Preservation Society * sample image * 1899

The Plant World Vol I 1898 * The Wildflower Preservation Society * sample image * 1898

The Plant World Vol VII 1904 * The Wildflower Preservation Society * sample image * 1904

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 16, 2022

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve: A windo into the past – A prompt for an early fall road trip? It is about 4 hours from where we live now.

Psoriasis: Study lays foundation for new treatment strategy – Hope more targeted treatment can be developed….avoiding the drugs used currently that suppress the immune system overall.

Winners of the 2022 Audubon Photography Awards Celebrate the Beauty of Our Feathered Friends – Images of birds in action.

The silent danger of gum disease – More reasons to sustain regular dental checkups….and for dentists to be vigilant.

The Milkweed Gang – Milkweed attracts quite a few insects…even if it is an island surrounded by invasive plants!

New species of giant waterlily is the largest in the world – It has been growing in Kew Gardens in 177 years and in a herbarium in Bolivia for 34 years….always assumed to be the well-known species of giant waterlily named after Queen Victoria. The leaves can grow up to 10 feet wide…and support at least 176 pounds!

Toads surprise scientists by climbing trees in UK woodlands – Even when we think we know a species well…there are still surprises!

This New Species of Carnivorous Pitcher Plant Traps Its Prey Underground – In the rainforest of Borneo at elevations of 3,600 – 4,265 feet.

Ozone Hole — New, Large, Constant Ozone Hole — Appears Over Tropics – 7x larger than then Antarctic ozone hole!

Unlocking the secrets of the ancient coastal Maya – More than a decade of interdisciplinary work increasing the understanding of how these people lived and responded to rising sea levels and changing political/economic systems. And still more to be learned.

Longwood Gardens – WaterLilies

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The water lily court at Longwood Gardens was open and beautiful. I am always fascinated by the large Victoria waterlily (the ones at Longwood are ones that they created in 1960 – a cross between Victoria amazonica and Victoria cruziana). The pads unfurl from the center and the outer edge stays vertical – showing the red underside of the pad. The flowers look like crepe paper as they unfurl rather than the spikey flowers of the other waterlilies. The buds have bristles. Look through my Victoria images by using the forward and backward arrows at the sides.

Of course – the other waterlilies are almost as exciting to photograph and they have brilliant colors. My husband had provided a polarizing filter for my camera which helps to surround the flowers with black background – sometimes. There were not many bees (late in the season for waterlilies) but I did notice one bee butt when I got home and selected images to use in this post. And there is one hibiscus in the slide show; I couldn’t resist the flaring of the petals…the color and shadows.

I always enjoy the waterlily court so I’m glad we got to see it during the first time back to Longwood since before the pandemic (I almost said post-pandemic but we’re not quite there yet!). It’s a great place for photography and has lots of benches to just enjoy the pools of waterlilies…and other water-loving plants lining the walls of the court and in pots standing in the water.

Patuxent Research Refuge – Waterlilies

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Last week, my husband and I spent a morning at the South Tract of Patuxent Research Refuge. It’s about 30 minutes from where we live. The weather was a sunny and cool – typical early fall and a great time to be out and about.…and there were waterlilies blooming!

The first ones I noticed were in an area where the water level had recently dropped, based on the number of lilypads that were out of the water rather than floating. There was also a lot more vegetation in the water in that area other that water lilies.

Toward the end of our walk, we were between two ponds and the light was right for reflections. I liked the light pink of this first flower…even though a lilypad bisected the reflection.

The next flower I photographed I remembered to apply the rule of thirds after I took the first image….and have to admit – I like the second one better!

The visitor center was open but we didn’t go in. We’ll be back to see fall foliage in a few weeks!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 11, 2020

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Top 25 birds of the week: Diet and Birds in Groups - Wild Bird Revolution – Catching up with collections of bird photographs. Some species appear in both sets!

Older adults share fewer memories as they age -- ScienceDaily – As I read about this study – I remembered that my grandmother often seemed surprised when I asked her about her memories of school…of what she remembered from her life before marriage…when my father was born, etc. She even asked why I was interested. Once she was reassured that I was…and that I wanted to take some notes…she was more than willing to share her memories which were often quite vivid well into her 90s.

Breathtaking Photos of Farmers Harvesting Lilies from the Mekong Delta – How beautiful! Near us – this type of water lily harvesting was done at Kenilworth Gardens in the first part of the 1900s.

Death and Drama Among the Cicada Killers – I remember collecting two cicada killers for my insect collection during the summer before my sophomore year in high school. I saw one go into a hole and put a jar over the hole….and two cicada killers came up into the jar. This article helped me understand what I found. First – they both had stingers, so they were females. Second – one of them had dug the hole…and the other was trying to covertly lay her eggs on the cicada the other had brought to the hole!

The hidden risks of cooking your food - BBC Future – There are benefits too….

Putting Communities at the Center of Freshwater Conservation – Cool Green Science – This type of thinking needs to be more prevalent re US freshwater resources as well. There are some parts of the country that are a drought away from severe water shortage just for the human population (particularly if water for agriculture is included as that allocated for humans)…nothing left for wildlife or riparian landscapes.

Tongue microbes provide window to heart health -- ScienceDaily – Maybe a new tool for detecting and treating heart failure.

The astonishing vision and focus of Namibia’s nomads - BBC Future – Detecting visual and attention changes caused by modern life.

Is It Possible to Shower Too Much? - The Atlantic – There is hygiene critical to health….and going beyond that might be harmful.

Climate Change Tied to Increased Pregnancy Risks, Analysis Finds - Yale E360 – Air pollution and heat exposure are linked with negative pregnancy outcomes in the US…..and both of are increasing in the US. And the impact of air pollution and excessive heat is problematic for babies too.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

2 fawns. For the past few days, we’ve had two fawns in the back yard in the morning – after my usual early morning hour on the deck. Sometimes the doe is close to them…one morning she stayed back in the forest while the fawns wondered around. One day the flies were bothering them; they are particularly noticeable on the doe. It’s not unusual for deer to have twins. It seems like it is the norm for the ones we see in our backyard during the past few summers.

Fashion as Design office hours. The Fashion as Design Coursera course from last April provided two Zoom based sessions this week. Both provided references that update the course relative to the current crises in the US. I managed to open many of the links posted to the chat during the office hours and am passing some of them along:

  • Design Emergency – Instagram Live sessions that explore design’s role in the COVID-19 crisis. A collaboration between Paola Antonelli (design curator at MoMA) and Alice Rawsthorn (design critic). I am going to work my way through the videos on this site.

  • That Time When We All Fell Back in Love with Nature | British Vogue – From the August issue of British Vogue.

  • Kerby Jean-Raymond on Defunding the Police: “Anything else isn’t worth talking about” – Jean-Raymond is a designer that was one of the people featured in the course videos. Recently he drafted a list of actionable demands that the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) members and its associated companies could be held accountable for. He was interviewed for the latest  edition of Frontpage. His bottom line: “Now all you can do is pick a side — and if you don’t pick a side, that means you picked a side.”

  • The Tuxedo Redefined – Virtual Exhibition from earlier this year curated by NYU Costume Studies Graduate Students.

Waterlilies at Longwood Gardens

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One of my favorite places at Longwood Gardens in the late summer/early fall is the waterlily courtyard. Last weekend was no exception. It was a sunny day – and not too hot. We had left our house early enough to be at the visitor center about 15 minutes after the gardens opened. There were a couple of groups that had obviously planned to meet others waiting in the building or just a little way into the garden. Everyone was enjoying the prospect of the day at Longwood – just as we were. As usual – we headed for the Conservatory first…..making our way to the waterlilies half way through the conservatory walk through.

The courtyard always has a few photographers and there is usually someone around to answer questions. We were around early enough that it wasn’t crowded. I love catching the bees on the flowers. My favorite picture of the slideshow below is a flower with 4 bees (there were probably more on the inside of the flower)! Waterlilies often look somewhat alien to me because the colors are vibrant, and the flower parts are robust. I love photographing them….and enjoying the images after I get home.