William Roxburgh Gallery

Strychnos potatorum, Willd. (Clearing nut)

Watercolour on paper. Hand painted copy of an illustration commissioned by William Roxburgh (1751-1815). In Flora Indica, Roxburgh notes that this species is found exclusively in the ...mountains and woods of great extent, where it flowers during the hot season. Inscribed Received from Rodney 9th June 1791, in an unknown hand, referring to the East India Company ship which delivered the drawings to London. The plant is rubbed inside water-vessels, it causes precipitation of impurities in cloudy water, also used as a medicine and timber source

© RBG KEW

Senna alata, R

Watercolour on paper. Hand painted copy of an illustration commissioned by William Roxburgh (1751-1815). In his Flora Indica, Roxburgh describes this species as a large shrub. Roxburgh notes that when cultivated, this species flowers around the end of the wet and beginning of the cold seasons, and that the seed ripens around the end of the cold season. Roxburgh also tells how this plant is employed as a medical remedy. The drawing has been inscribed Received from Rodney 9th June 1791, referring to the Company ship which delivered the drawings

© RBG KEW

Mangifera sylvatica, R

Watercolour on paper, no date (late 18th, early 19th century). Hand painted copy of an illustration commissioned by William Roxburgh. In his Flora Indica, Roxburgh describes this species as a native of the mountains adjoining Sylhet, where it grows to attain a great size. It flowers in October, and the fruit ripens in February and March. Roxburgh also notes that the natives eat the fruit of this species, ...though by no means so palatable as even a bad domestic mango..., and that they dry it too, for medicinal purposes

© RBG KEW