The Final Duchess of Beaufort's Flowers

 

Orbea Variegata

This is the last of the succulent prints from the Duchess of Beaufort's flowers, and it depicts what would be then a Stapelia from the Asclepiadaceae, but is now better known as Orbea variegata from the much expanded Apocynaceae. Cottesloe writes:

Frankcom painted two very different plants which he called apocynum, the cactus-like one in this picture and in another illustration a convolvulus like plant. Both, however, have the same star-like flowers differing only in size.* Apocynum is also known as dogbane, from apo, 'away' and kyon 'a dog', in other words 'keep away from dogs as it is poisonous'.** All this family have poisonous milky sap but some are treated so that they can be used for emetic and cathartic purposes. The latex of some species has also provided a substitute for rubber when for some reason the latter was not available. 

This particular plant is often called the carrion plant, for it has the foetid smell of rotting flesh*** which  nevertheless appears to attract insects. The five-petalled star-like flower is quite characteristic with its green centre and purple-brown spots on pale yellow. The cactus-like leaves are actually thick fleshy stems, four-angled and deeply toothed, with perhaps an incipient leaf on the ends of some. They are found in South Africa as low-growing succulents on sand and need greenhouse protection in Britain.

The flower has a curious habit of folding over its petals when an insect alights on it which is clearly seen in the flower on the left of the painting****. The insect is trapped and is probably an aid to fertilization as this plant is not recorded as a carnivorous one. 

At a later date this species was given the name of Stapelia by Linnaeus after a seventeenth-century horticulturalist from Amsterdam called Van Stapel, who edited Theocrates' works. It belongs to the genus Asclepidaceae called after the god of medicine Asclepius, who was generally shown supported by Hygeia, the goddess of wise living and Panakeia, the goddess of cure-alls. It is interesting to note that curative methods of medicine today always advocate good hygiene and sometimes the use of pink pill as a panacea, so the goddesses could still be considered as supports for medicine. 

*Would love to know what the plate used, this unknown "sclep" is depicted on. I have a feeling its a Hoya of some kind but star-like flowers could be anything. Only the age of its discovery will narrow it down. 

** Pretty much this, its now placed in with the Oleander family of plants so if not lethally poisonous then its not the wisest to eat. The link up on the top paragraph links to the wikipedia page with its uses.

*** I used to grow this and can vouch that it does smell a bit, but unlike many of its ilk you'll need to get in close to smell it. Trust me, there are far worse smelling plants in this family.

**** No it just means that the flower has gone over. Orbea like many in this family have a massively complex means of pollination, I've heard of people using cats whiskers in order to pollinate several of these species. With seed set the plant will set out two horn like fruit which will split open to release some masses of seeds attached to cotton-like fluff.

The Duchess of Beaufort's flowers pt5

Mammillaria

 We come to the penultimate entry, labelled as an Echinocactus, when it clearly is a Mammillaria, replete with its ring of fruit. Gordon Rowley, of course, has this down as Mammillaria mammillaris and as I know and grow few Mammillaria's beside the most commonest ones, I'll agree with our former society chair here. Some real "comedy" here as the text claims that its a species of Lithops when you can plainly see its been bisected to show it internals. Gordon puts it much more succinctly, below.

This unusual picture shows examples of flowering plants on a scree or base of rocks, obviously indoors* for these are xerophytic plants which only thrive in hot dry climates.

**Echimilocactus is the name given to the round cactus in the centre, probably now called Echinocactus grusonii***. Echino means 'like a hedgehog' which is an  apt designation. The spines are numerous and are arranged like white stars with a spacing reminiscent of the geometrical pattern found in fir cones and pineapples****. These spines protect the plant from animals but have the power of  collecting any moisture that may be around and delaying transpiration from the epidermis, the thickened skin of the plant. There are deep ridges which help with the storage of water; the moist milky inside of the plant allows it to live a long time without rain, especially as it is an economical spherical shape. The red flowers and fruits***** are decoratively arranged around the plant's equator. 

The white flower****** below the cactus is probably another example of a xerophyte in full flower, a daisy-like Lithops flower from South Africa. Lithops is a species of Aizoaceae; its name means 'like a stone'. It is indeed difficult to distinguish them from  the stones and pebbles among which they grow, especially the Marmorata or marbled type. 

According to the description written by Frankcom, the small succulents on the right came from America and had milky-white flowers and red pyramid-shape fruits. Most of the cacti came from tropical America and would have been collectors' pieces in the seventeenth century. 

*My stupid brain thought that this would have been a sketch from real life, but it seems that its a copy of a copy of a painting by Commelijn. Rowley talks about an Orangery where this was grown and I'd hope there was some sort of bed and rock arrangement where these where grown, or at least some terracotta pots.

** Echimilocactus is a name I haven't heard before, and neither has the internet it seems. Maybe valid in the 18th century but not now. 

*** So wrong, its Mammillaria mammillaris Ironically, although the golden barrel cactus is mentioned it's now in its own species as Kroenleinia rather than Echinocactus. A species I think is spectacularly ugly. 

**** See Fibonacci  for what is going on here, and yes, Mammillaria has tubercles rather than ribs so it works.

***** Only the fruits are red in this and Frankcom's description below of the plants is correct. The plant comes from the Caribbean islands and down into Venezuela and I wonder what the extent of it is in that benighted country. 

****** Wrong its been cut in half to expose the stem and show how where the milky sap comes from.   I have seen photos of cross sections of Lithops stems to show the leaves and stem as well. As for tropical America its more like the dry deserts of the Americas both south and north along with Mexico. 

The Duchess of Beaufort's Flowers pt4

Finally my room is back to what it was and this time  we have an Aloe arborescens in flower as our subject. The text has states:

There are over a dozen pictures in the manuscripts of the plant, *Aloe. The one illustrated here was painted by Frankcom who chose to paint the flowering specimens. Those painted by Kychicus were representative of the plants grown from seed which came from the Cape of Good Hope, some still in seedling form. 

Wild Aloes are shrubby xerophytes which are able to adapt themselves to dry conditions by thickening their leaves to hold reserves of water as does the cactus. The leaves form a rosette around the stem out of which the flowers grow, bur some have a stalk or trunk** which can reach a height of twenty or thirty feet in their native country. Those the Duchess grew may have come from South Africa, but at a later date they were imported from Abyssinia and Madagascar, where it is said the juice of tree aloes is used medicinally as a purgative.

It is popular as a house plant as the rosettes of thick fleshy leaves are very varied, often with a triangular section and prickles on the margin which may be crowded or few, green white or yellow. The leaves may have white patches or stripes. The flowering stems may be branched and the flowers can vary from a drab olive green and yellow to a bright pinkish orange***. They are mostly They are mostly tubular and clustered rather like a small red hot poker (Kniphofia). The one depicted by Frankcom has flowers with a green tip to the orange incurving perianth. Frankom describes it in the index as having a stalk below the rosette, leaves encircling the stem, plain not spotted, and states that he painted it in 1703 and it came from Africa. It comes early in his book so perhaps it was one of his first paintings hence his more than usually detailed note.

Gordon Rowley writes in Bradleya that the notes to this were confused with an Agave, with is massive terminal flower spike in contrast to the more regular annual flowering of Aloes.

Incidentally I'm not sure who the Frankcom mentioned as artist in this could be. A search brings up a watchmaker and engraver of the same name but not an artist.

* Rowley logs this as ten instances of 7 different species.

** These tree Aloes are now treated as a separate species, Aloidendron. Indeed, looking at the list on Wiki, they do indeed, come from South Africa, Arabia and parts of east Africa. 

*** Aloe flowers range from yellow and orange to pink and a brickish red, with albiflora a rare outlier with white flowers. They all have green tips to the flowers, which remain straight rather than in Gasteria which is allied to them, but who's flowers are bent like a stomach and remain in a line unlike Aloes whose flowers are shrubby and branching.

Apemen

 The Apeman's secret is basically the boys take on comic book culture and super hero shows. I guess the Apeman is a stand in for the Incredible Hulk as both TV and book series are released at the end of the 1970's. 

The basic plot of this is some thefts have been occurring around Bayport along with the appearance of the Apeman, a TV show based on a super hero caveman type. There is also totally not a Scientology style cult that has been recruiting teenagers to commit crimes and pass on information to the main leader. 

A few things I've noticed following the culture war stuff on Youtube, watching Ya Boi Zack on the comics  industry and finding nothing really changes. Here its not woke or diversity but out and out crookery that is the driving force. Chet submits a character he's drawn as part of one of his hobbies and finds that his character has been changed to a comic relief one. Also it seems that the Apeman thing was stolen outright from another creator.

Also is this the first ever mention of cosplay? as the Apeman interrupts the boys disco where they dress up as comic book characters. I know fancy dress was a thing back then, but the boys and their pals all go dressed as various comic book characters rather than other famous characters or professions. 

Anyway as its a newish Hardy boys book there are no changes here in the script between the two editions. You can read both books here and here. 

There will be no Beaufort analysis this week as my room has been in sore need of sorting out so everything is up in the air at the moment. 

A quick guide to controlling lander type vehicles in Elite Dangerous

 Had to do a mission today where I had to salvage something from a planet. I've landed on a few now but crucially never had any type of rover vehicle (think Scarabs) to salvage anything let alone a planetary vehicle hangar.

If you have a planetary vehicle hangar and a scarab or better installed in your ship, this is how you basically do these sorts of missions.

You'll need to hyperspace to the system the job is based in, scan the nav beacon to find out what planet you need to land on and then go there. You'll need the horizons expansion to do all this.

When in the planets vicinity, enter into orbital flight mode and descend low enough to the general crash site area. 

Find some suitable terrain that you can actually land on. Now comes the fun bit, making sure the Scarab is online, land. 

NOTE I'M USING THE XBOX ONE VERSION SO YOU'LL NEED TO WORK OUT WHAT BUTTONS ARE USED TO CONTROL AND OPERATE YOUR SHIP IN OTHER VERSIONS. shout off.

Push left control stick, you should be looking down into your own cockpit and select scarab from the menu.

Controlling this is weird and tends to get stuck on the terrain but you'll use your gun buttons to go forward and backward. LT and RT same principles as flying but with no pitch and yaw.

Cargo scoop is the same as flight B and Up and you'll need to roll over the canister to pick it up. 

Scarab can only accommodate 4 tons* so be selective in what you grab, including the target object in my case Hooch. Oh and unlike 

I know there is a few more options including a gun turret, but it went smoothly and had no need to open fire on anything.

Anyway back on your ship and you'll need cockpit view to actually board your ship and take off, yeah its a pain and the controls are sketchy but I hope it helps someone out there.

* gotta feeling that this may be tied to ship cargo space, in any case may repeat this and see with an empty hold if I have more space to grab stuff.

Edit. Failed a recon mission today, but worked out a few new things. You do have only 4T of space in the scarab and there is a tab, X + Right, to show what your ROV has just like in your ship, proper. 

The Duchess of Beaufort's Flowers PT3

 

So this plate which has two Sedums in it as well as a Snowdrop and Thorn Apple (Datura) main focus. The Sedums shown are a bit of mystery and Gordon Rowley has it as either Dasyphyllum or Sedum Acre, both of which are a poor fit.

The main text referring to this plate also has it as:

On the right are two Sedums, one merely a cluster of leaves and the other in flower. Sedums belong to a large family widely distributed over the northern hemisphere. The majority of the species grow in temperate regions but when they are found in latitudes nearer the equator, they appear on mountain slopes. They have the ability to use cracks in the rocks and to cling to the surface, whether in the rock garden or in the wild. They were known to the Ancients and also to the medieval herbalists, but they were not listed until Linnaeus wrote his Species Plantarum fifty years after these paintings were completed. Then there were only fifteen known species but now over *five hundred have been identified, mainly due to the plant hunters' explorations of Mexico and western China. For this reason it is difficult to decide which species Kychicus has painted, so perhaps it is as well to leave it with his designation- 'Sedum with a white flower'. 

The elongated flower spikes are throwing me a bit on this and the general oddness of the rosettes, I seriously thought the other plant not in flower was an Echeveria. I'm pretty sure due to its age and that the other plants are European in nature that the flowering plant is Sedum album the white stonecrop. The other plant that is just a rosette (if we infer that its also from Europe) is a form of Sempervivum, probably tectorum.

* Kew puts this at 488 species scattered across the world  

The Duchess of Beauforts Flowers PT2

 

Finally found the Bradley issue where Gordon Rowley goes through the paintings, so grabbed a PDF and its a big help. This entry we look at an Opuntia and whatever that is growing down below. 

Here is another plant with a fig connotation but with quite a different form. Opuntia is the Greek name given to the prickly pear or Indian fig, the word supposedly coming from the ancient town of Opus in Greece, known as the town of figs. This fig should not be confused with the fruit of the broadleaved tree Ficus to which it has a likeness in the shape of the fruit only. Opuntias grown freely and often to a large size in Mediterranean countries but they came originally from the hot countries of the New World including Mexico and Brazil. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Aztecs were producing a gum called nopal from the plants from which they made various remedies including one for burns in which nopal was mixed with honey, eggs and herbs.

The prickly pieces are easily broken off* to make new plants, hence it is a familiar house plant, which with care can be brought into bloom in spring' the flowers may be yellow, orange, red or purple. It is important that they should not be overwatered and one recommendation is that they should only be given water when the weather report for Mexico says rain.** The flattened ovoids are really enlarged stems in which water is stored and the stomata from which the prickles emerge are vestigial leaves which may be raised areoles, barbed bristles or white spines. These have the power of hindering transpiration or holding dew, and are arranged in a geometrical spiral, one of nature's favourite structures.

The fruits of many opuntias are edible*** and are supposed to be nutritious. They are eaten raw or cooked as a vegetable and can be made into a fermented drink, while the plants with the spines burnt off are sometimes fed to cattle. There is one species, Opuntia cochenillifera, which was cultivated in tropical America to provide food for the insects**** that were used to make cochineal., before synthetic food dyes were manufactured. 

The blurb for this is mostly right and yes that is an Opuntia in the foreground (Opuntia compressa) and the succulent at the base is Jordaaniella dubia, and not as I thought, a Tillandsia. I never knew about making fermented drinks from it but the nopals when treated to remove the spiny glochids, are used as a vegetable. 

* Indeed they are, you haven't lived until you have an armful of small glochids along with a chunk of stem clinging to your arm. Almost impossible to remove without some pain and the use of tweezers.

** Which is cute, but wrong the standard cactus instructions stand here. No watering between Halloween and April Fools day and then only weekly. The Opuntia tribe can stand some cold though being as its the most northernly (Manitoba) and Southernly (Maihuenia down in Patagonia) growing species of cactus. 

*** Have done this but found it to be waxy and the seeds are bullet hard. Not sure about growing them  though.

**** OK confession time, my uncle worked for the dye factory down near the tip and gave me a small bottle of the mealy bugs that were processed to make cochineal. The only time a cactus grower really wants mealy bug on their plants. 

The Duchess Of Beaufort's Flowers pt1

 

Happy new year. This is going to be a series for most of the coming month ahead if not leading into February. I picked up this book at a boot-sale last year and have just gotten round to reading it. It's an old flora with some commentary on what the various species are grown by Mary Capel, the first Duchess Of Beaufort.

As a cactus fan, we'll only cover that which depicts succulents and I'll give a commentary on what I think the plants are as the people writing are unfamiliar with what they are. I note that there is a write up in an old Bradleya by Gordon Rowley, if I can find it for download or sale I'll see if we agree. (He was BCSS president so he'll be much more right than I ever will). Anyway this is the entry for plate 7 as seen above.

Plate 7 Ficoides and Statice.

Ficoides is the name  given in the index to no fewer than seventeen plants painted by Kychicus, mostly small daisy-like flowers with succulent leaves shown at the base of a group. The word "Ficoides" means literally 'like a fig' but there is no resemblance to the fig leaf or family in the plants painted nor is there a plant called by that name in horticulture now. Kychicus, however, also records that they were from South Africa. Now there is in that country a plant called vygie in Afrikaans which means "little fig" and refers to the edible fruits of the mesembryanthemum which is also called Hottentot fig and fig marigold. Both the fruits and the leaves of this plant have a slight narcotic content and act as a stimulant. In East Africa the crushed fruit is used in the making of bread and the ash as a source of washing powder. 

It is indeed a very large family of curious plants both recumbent and tall but each having a daisy-like flower and yet not of the daisy or Compositae family. The family Aizoaceae is called after the iceplant whose fleshy leaves have innumerable translucent dots which shine like dew drops in the shade but in the sun appear as brilliant crystals, and whose leaves seem always cold to the touch.

Mesembria means 'midday' and anthemon is a flower, thus the name describes the flower's  habit of only opening in full sun. Dorotheanthus* and Livingstone daisy are other modern names for the plant painted by Kychicus. They grow in this country from seeds or cuttings taken from the thick leaf and if placed in a sunny position provide flowers useful for bedding designs in vivid colours including crimson, purple, orange, blue and yellow. The illustration shows their versatility. The centre plant is a tall white mesembryanthemum with slim yet succulent leaves; on the right are two with yellow flowers, one a tall plant with a rough stem almost like a trunk of a tree and the other a recumbent variety with a larger flower. On the left are two not in flower but with an interesting and different leaves. 

So a rather nice potted history on the genus Aizoaceae. She's wrong on a few points here and doesn't drill down species shown. There are no blue flowered mesembs, but all other colours mentioned are correct as are the uses. Sceletium and Psilocaulon used to be used for a mild narcotic and as ash in lye making and are now treated as part of the much expanded Mesembryanthem genus. 

*Dorotheanthus is now treated as part of Cleretum another annual species. 

Finally you can grow them from cuttings and indeed seeds which I have done in the past. though the more stemless varieties are better off grown from seed. Finally I'll give you my definition of what I think these species represent. 

Across from the top left is:

A statice or sea lavender.

An unknown shrubby mesemb, which I thought was a species of daisy but now I'm looking at it properly, seems to be a white flowered Lampranthus. It's not Ruschia as its not pink. Though it could conceivably be a Delosperma.  EDIT. Finally its Delosperma Ecklonis.

Some unknown Asteraceae species. Due to its composite flower I'm going to guess a fleabane or likewise. I know it by sight but not by name. 

From the bottom row.

Orbea Variegata. A well known Asclep, with its starfish flowers and bad smell. Some of you may know it as a Stapelia. 

Glottiphyllum.  Although they couldn't place this in the book. Its obvious to me with its huge fleshy leaves and big yellow flowers that this is a Glottiphyllum. Helps that last quarter's journal had a guide to the species, but this doesn't help narrow it down, as they are notoriously hard to tell apart.