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[-JKP-]

JKP
First of all, I was interested in the similarity of drawings, not identification, which is written in the article.
Your 4 plant proposals are well known to me. I do them every year I plant to decorate the house, including celosia a comb and amaranth bearded (from which in Russia baked bread, before to the spread of wheat and rye). 
I have a large collection of garden flowers. 

Me too.  :   I love gardening.

I don't think the two drawings look similar either morphologically or in the way they are painted:

• The one on the left has basal leaves (leaves in a whorl close to the ground). The one on the right has leaves that start some distance up the stalk and grow up the stalk, not close to the ground.
  
• The leaves on the left plant point upward, the ones on the right point mostly sideways.
  
• The one on the left makes a point of showing the "pods" (which is how Apollinaris Henbane is usually drawn in old herbals). The one on the right has no flower stalks.
  
• The one on the left is shades of green. The one on the right is shades of red, green and light.
  
• The one on the left has long fairly narrow leaves. The one on the right has elliptical leaves.
  
• The one on the left has leaves split into two colors. The one on the right has each leaf a solid color, but alternating with other colors (which might be stylistic compared to the real plant, but is different from the way the left plant is drawn).
  
• The plant on the left has a tap root. The one on the right has branching roots.
  
• The one on the left has a two-tone "shaded" root. This kind of shading is uncommon in the VMS.
  
• The way the leaves are painted is different. The painter on the left smooths the paint along the outer edges, the painter on the right leaves little bumpy gaps.
  
• The paint on the left is heavier and the yellowish shade is stronger than the shade of yellow pale yellow used in many parts of the VMS.
  
• The drawing on the left has heavier, thicker, darker outlines.
  

The only strong similarity is the pointy ends on the leaves and that is a characteristic of many thousands of plants (and many of the other VMS plants).

It's true that both plants have a row of dots, but as far as I can tell, the dots are along the leaf vein on the left-hand plant (which is not uncommon), on the VMS they are along the edge of the leaf (which is less common).

That sounds so harsh, but they don't look similar to me.