Harriet Stewart Miner's botanical vintage illustration from Orchids - The Royal Family of Plants from 1885 - Laelia autumnalis
1885 Text LAELIA AUTUMNALIS. This variety -represented on Plate No. flowering prob- ably ,„ its native tropical home (Central America) in autumn blossoms here in early winter. It is of luxuriant growth; produces from five to fifteen blossoms on a drooping spike. Those who study it will not doubt that the variety is every way worthy of cultivation. In Eastern lands they talk in flowers-and they tell in a garland their loves and cares-each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers- 0n its leaves a mystic language bears. "The fathers of the Church were in the habit of comparing the soul to a garden. Gardens figure conspicuously in the mythology of all nations living in a hot or temperate climate. The Mohammedan paradise is represented under that symbol. The Chinese speak of the gardens of the immortals, which are said to be situated among the mountains of Thibet, and blessed with perpetual summer; nothing within their bounds can die or grow old, and several ancient sages are believed to have retired to dwell among their bowers. There is a wild tradition among the Arabs concerning gardens of the desert, which are believed to have been formed by an ancient king, at enormous expense and labor. They say he conquered all the nations of the East, and boasted he would conquer the sands also, but, having completed his design, the gardens suddenly became invisible in the pomp of their richest bloom, and neither the monarch nor any of his successors ever again beheld them; but bewildered travellers have caught glimpses of them at times, through the falling twilight, and given splendid accounts of their gorgeous trees and flowers." "The Royal Garden at Stockholm contains one of the best collections of plants in Europe; and more pineapples are produced in the neighborhood of St. Petersburg (in spite of nine months of winter) than in any other capital in Christendom.
Size: 4633px × 6190px
Photo credit: © steeve. e. flowers. / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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