Category Archives: Natural history

Ruskin at Two Hundred

Posted on 05/03/2019 by carolinemmurray

To London last week for a few days of Culture. I decided to go down the night before my first assignation, rather than turn up at Two Temple Place (which does not have cloakroom facilities) with two stuffed gorillas and … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Botany, History, Italy, London, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged architecture, botanical drawing, Charles Fairfax Murray, George Allen, H.R. Newman, J.M.W. Turner, John Bunney, John Ruskin, Octavia Hill, Old Master copies, Ruskin at Walkley, Samuel Prout, Two Temple Place, Venice | 4 Comments

Plant of the Month: February 2019

Posted on 21/02/2019 by carolinemmurray

I had always thought that Garrya elliptica, usually at its most spectacular at this time of year, was an Australian plant. I have no idea why … In fact, it comes from a quite restricted strip of coastal western America, … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliography, Botany, Exploration, Gardens, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged botany, David Douglas, Garrya elliptica, John Lindley, Sarah Ann Drake, taxonomy | 1 Comment

Plant of the Month: January 2019

Posted on 25/01/2019 by carolinemmurray

A lot of choice, during this (so far) mild winter. I wondered about Sycopsis chinensis, of which the yellow filaments are currently glowing @CUBotanicGarden, or one of my own winter-flowering clematis, but – not only because it is glorious in … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, Cambridge, Exploration, Gardens, History, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Daphne, Daphne bholua, East India Company, Francis Buchanan, Marquis Wellesley, Nepal, paper-making, plant of the month, winter garden | 1 Comment

Almost a Year …

Posted on 13/01/2019 by carolinemmurray

In 2017, I photographed one conifer @CUBotanicGarden once a month. I have to admit that the result was not completely gripping, so I thought that for 2018 I would track the development of the laid hedge there. I failed at … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, Natural history, Uncategorized | Tagged Cambride University Botanic Garden, hedges, seasons | 1 Comment

Woman’s Work

Posted on 10/01/2019 by carolinemmurray

… (a) is never done, proverbially, and (b) consists of cooking, cleaning and home-making (oh, and child-bearing), traditionally. Therefore it is always interesting, and sometimes quite astonishing, to come across a historical figure who worked in a role which, according … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Venice | Tagged Anna Morandi Manzolini, Elena Cornaro Piscopia, Laura Bassi, university of Bologna, university of Padua, women scientists, women's education | 1 Comment

Plant of the Month: December 2018

Posted on 16/12/2018 by carolinemmurray

Not a traditionally Chrismassy plant, but something I came across @CUBotanicGarden the other morning, flowering its socks off against the glasshouse range, Correa backhouseana (or backhousiana according to some sources) is interesting not merely in botanical but also in history-of-science … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Australian plants, Backhouse family, Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Correa backhouseana, Correa family | 3 Comments

Plant of the Month, November 2018

Posted on 28/11/2018 by carolinemmurray

This is an unlikely pick for the time of year: an aloe which looks as though it ought to be under glass but none the less is thriving (so far, in this unnaturally warm autumn) outdoors, in front of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, Natural history | Tagged Aloe polyphylla, Aloe vera, aloes, Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Lesotho | Leave a comment

Plant of the Month, October 2018

Posted on 04/10/2018 by carolinemmurray

What is an autumn crocus? The easy answer is that it is not in fact a crocus (in the Iridaceae family) but a colchicum (in the Colchicaceae family), Colchicum autumnale to be precise. Needless to say, neither life nor taxonomy … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, Natural history | Tagged Cambridge University Botanic Garden, colchucum, crocus, plant of the month, saffron | Leave a comment

Sister of the More Famous Tycho

Posted on 10/09/2018 by carolinemmurray

When I wrote a valedictory piece in another place, before starting my Vita Nuova, I mentioned that one of the many books I might never now read was a biography of Tycho (properly Tyge Ottensen) Brahe (1546–1601), by John Louis … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, History, Natural history | Tagged astrology, astronomy, Denmark, Sophie Brahe, Sweden, Tycho Brahe, Uraniborg | 2 Comments

William Turner, Naturalist

Posted on 08/09/2018 by carolinemmurray

I have mentioned before Dr Richard Pulteney (1730–1801), the sole survivor of eleven children from an Old Anabaptist family near Loughborough, Leicestershire, who was apprenticed to an apothecary and then set up as an apothecary and surgeon in Leicester. After … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Gardens, History, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged botany, herbals, Richard Pulteney, William Turner | 2 Comments