f65R any identifications?

[-JKP-]

I think that the plant that resembles knapweed ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ) may also be a dried plant for several reasons...

• The leaves are drawn flattened on top of each other, very much like a herbarium specimen.
  
• The color chosen for the flower in the VMS drawing is a faded amber. There are a few knapweeds that are close to this color in nature, but almost all of them become this washed-out pale yellow color when you dry them and there are only a few knapweeds with this kind of leaf (and they tend to be shades of pink or violet rather than a washed-out yellow color).
  
• The flowers have that slightly thickened look that you get when you squash them flat.
  
• The stem has been painted a brownish-red. Most knapweeds have green stems but they tend to turn a brownish-red color when they are dried.
  

Of course, the amount of the color change depends partly on how long the plant has been drying (and sometimes how quickly), but these are pretty typical color changes for this particular plant.


so... if Plant 2r shows this many signs of being drawn from a dried specimen then it makes sense to look for other plants in the manuscript that may have the same characteristics.

I have seen quite a few drawings in medieval manuscripts that show "the old sages", the classical authors who wrote about herbs, drawing from plants that have been cut and placed in a vase. They're not dried specimens, but they have been collected and brought somewhere to be observed. There are also examples of manuscripts from the late 15th century and onward that consist of dried specimens rather than drawings, or dried specimens to which the roots have been added by hand. There is even a manuscript that was linked here recently (I think it was ReneZ who called it to our attention) in which some of the plants had been inked and pressed onto the page to make a monoprint and then had been painted over.


So, we see precedents, at least from the 15th century of the use of cut plants and dried plants as examples, as imprinting templates, and as actual herbarium specimens mounted into books.