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ALEXANDER MARSHAL (C. 1620-82)

Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana L.) with an unnamed snail (Family Helicidae probably genus Cepaea), an unidentified rose (Rosa sp.) called 'the Ragatte rose', Spanish love-in-a-mist (Nigella hispanica L.) and love-in-a-mist, double form (Nigella hispa

c.1650–82

RCIN 924344

This sheet is taken from the only surviving painted florilegium from seventeenth-century England. This florilegium was painstakingly completed over at least three decades as a personal archive by the plant-loving gardener Alexander Marshal. He was acquainted with many of the greatest plantsmen of his day, including John Tradescant the Younger (1608 – 62) and Henry Compton (1632 – 1713), Bishop of London. The florilegium probably represents an amalgam of plants grown by the leading florists of the late seventeenth century.

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