Picture Details
Betelnut, details of flowers and fruit. Watercolour on paper.
Partner:
Kew GardensImage reference:
ILLUS187.0/130.0ROXOrigin:
IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, 1790-1812Donor / Date:
1859Size:
508 x 348 mmDescription:
Click here for more details
Seen here are the flowers and well known 'nut' of the tall, slim palm tree that can be found in moist, tropical regions of India and Indonesia. The artist has represented the fruit in its ripe brown state (slightly smaller than a hen's egg), and illustrated the nut growing within. The Betel palm was one of many plants illustrated by a team of Indian artists working in Calcutta, under the guidance of the Scottish botanist William Roxburgh (1751-1815). Roxburgh remarked that it was '"[T]he most beautiful Palm we have on the coast; the trunk grows remarkably straight, often to forty or fifty feet high". Copies of all of these drawings were made at the expense of Sir William Hooker, and deposited by him at Kew.
Bibliographic Info:
Roxburgh, W. (1795-1819), Plants of the Coast of Coromandel. London, printed by W. Bulmer and co. for G. Nicol, bookseller.
