roots of f2r and Russian illustrations

[Anton]

I checked the Wikipedia article about Mr. Pavlishin. Notwithstanding that he graduated as an artist, he worked as ethnographer in the USSR Academy of Sciences for several years and travelled a lot across the Far East studying life and culture of the local peoples; it was that experience (as Wikipedia suggests) that became the basis of many of his works.

So I doubt that these ornaments, most probably Far Eastern in origin, can have anything in common with the VMS drawings.

As for ancient Russian herbals, I'm not sure that such do exist at all, but I'll check.