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FW: A Gardener's Delight: Curtis's Botanical Magazine

Title: FW: A Gardener's Delight: Curtis's Botanical Magazine
Here's a little gem for visually oriented folk.

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From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2002 09:34:31 -0400
To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom@hevanet.com>
Subject: A Gardener's Delight: Curtis's Botanical Magazine

STORY LEAD:
A Gardener's Delight: Curtis's Botanical Magazine

___________________________________________

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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