Paintings Gallery

Urania speciosa, Willd.(Ravenala madagascariensis, Travellers Palm')

Watercolour on paper, undated (late 18th, early 19th century). Hand painted copy of an illustration commissioned by William Roxburgh (1751-1815). In Flora Indica Roxburgh recalls In 1802 three plants of this elegant tree were brought from the Island of Mauritius by Capt. Tennant to the Botanic Garden at Calcutta. They were planted in different soils, and situations. That which was in a very moist place, and in a rich brownish black soil, throve more luxuriantly than the other two, though in a soil equally rich but lighter coloured, much higher and drier; the former flowered for the first time about the close of 1806 and again in September, 1807

© The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

No. 767. Study of the Bunya-Bunya

Oil on board, no date. Study of the Bunya-Bunya. This noble Conifer, Araucaria Bidwillii, Hook., is perhaps the most valuable food-tree indigenous in Australia, and only grows on one semi-circle of hills, within 100 miles in stretch, between the Brisbane and Burnett rivers, Queensland. The larger of the older trees are nearly 200 feet high, with a circumference of trunk of about twenty-five feet; and the horizontal markings on the pillar-like trunks make them very conspicuous amongst other trees. But what is most remarkable about these trees is that they are the only hereditary property any of the aborigines are known to possess. Each tribe has its own group of trees, and each family a certain tree or trees; and any interference with these rights leads to a bloody fight. The larger cones are a foot long and nine inches in diameter; and they are full of edible nuts (seeds) as large as chestnuts. Every third year there is an extra large crop, when the natives assemble from all parts to collect it. By an act of the Colonial Government the Bunya-Bunya is strictly preserved for the use and sustenance of the aborigines. Look at 713, 771, 773'. [Entry from the Official Guide to the North Gallery'. Fifth Edition, 1892]

© RBG KEW

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