These four pages are from a 1930’s encyclopedia. From a botany standpoint, they’ve got the basics covered; fruit, flowers, leaves, seeds, and roots. They are quite scientific! But what I really like about them, is how artfully they are arranged, how they fill the space of the page. Aren’t they pretty?

This page shows familiar spice plants: ginger, clove, caper, arrowroot, black pepper, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, logwood, corn, cinnamon, allspice, or pimento, madder, and millet.

Here you have important medicines: senna, jalap, castor oil, peruvian bark, opium poppy, nux vomica, turkey rhubarb, aloe, ipecauanha, sasparilla, squill, and gamboge.

This page shows coffee, tea, date-palm, banana, cacao, jack fruit, breadfruit, pistachio, pandanus, guava, litchi, brazil nut, and mango.

And lastly, gum arabic, sumac, benzoin, tragacanth, caoutchouc, jute, cotton, flax, gutta-percha, hemp, manioc, or cassave, sweet potato, and yam. I sell many unique botanical prints in my Etsy shop, available as digital downloads for you to print.