a selection of botanical artists’ works with commentary.

“Though today there are fewer botanists than in centuries past, there are more botanical artists than ever before. �These artists,� Robin Lane Fox writes in the September 25 issue of The New York Review, �are today�s close observers of flowers and fruits, now that �plant scientists� have moved inward to study cells and genes. Most plant scientists are ignorant about gardening. Artists do more for susceptible gardeners� fantasies.�

” John Reeves was a Tea Inspector for the British East India Company in China from 1812 to 1831. While trading at Canton and Macao, he arranged for masses of unfamiliar flowers and plants to be brought to him, and for Chinese artists to paint them. As this delectable peony shows, the Chinese artists, none known to us by name, rendered flowers with a texture and rhythm that Western artists did not so readily capture. Reeve�s archive is a priceless historical and artistic resource.”