eBotanical Prints – December 2023

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Twenty more books were added to the botanical print collection in December– available for browsing on Internet Archive. They were almost the only books I read/browsed in December; I was overwhelmingly busy caring for my parents.

The publication range for this group is 1629-1959 – a lot has changed in those 300 years!

The whole list of 2,781 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the December 2023 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the December 2023 eBotanical Prints!

Niger flora; or an enumeration of the plants of Western tropical Africa * Hooker, William Jackson (editor) * sample image * 1849

Bouquet de Melastomataceae Bresilieannes * Cogniaux, Alfred; Saldanha del Gama, Jose * sample image * 1887

Bryologia javanica V1 * Dozy, Francois; Molkenboer, Julian Hendrik; Bosch, Roelof Benjamin Van Den; Sande Lacoste, Cornelius Marinus van der * sample image * 1855

Bryologia javanica V2 * Dozy, Francois; Molkenboer, Julian Hendrik; Bosch, Roelof Benjamin Van Den; Sande Lacoste, Cornelius Marinus van der * sample image * 1855

Chung-kuo chu yao chih wu tʻu shuo.ho bien Nan-ching ta hsüeh, Shêng wu hsüeh hsi [ho] Chung-kuo kʻo hsüeh yüan, Chih wu yen chiu so.  * Keng, I-li * sample image * 1959

Collection d'orchide - esaquarelles originales. * Missouri Botanical Garden * sample image * 1900

Contribuciones al conocimiento de la flora ecuatoriana * Sodiro, L. * sample image * 1905

Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen * Sprengel, Christian Konrad * sample image * 1793

De plantis exoticis libri duo * Alpini, Alpino; Alpini, Prosperi * sample image * 1629

Descriptio?n de l'Egypte recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont ete faites en Egypte pendant l'expedition de l'armee francaise * Raffeneau-Delile, Alire * sample image * 1824

Description des plantes de l'Amerique * Plumier, Charles * sample image * 1693

Descriptionum et iconum rariores et pro maxima parte novas plantas illustrantium * Rottboll * sample image * 1773

Die Coniferen * Antoine, Franz * sample image * 1840

Phyto-iconographie der Bromeliaceen des kaiserlichen königlichen Hofburg-Gartens in Wien * Antoine, Franz * sample image * 1884

Die Flora der deutschen Schutzgebiete in der Sudsee * Lauterbach, Karl; Schumann, Karl Moritz * sample image * 1900

Nachtrage zur Flora der deutschen Schutzgebiete in der Sudsee * Lauterbach, Karl; Schumann, Karl Moritz * sample image * 1905

Die pflanzenwelt Ost-Afrikas und der nachbargebiete * Engler, Adolf * sample image * 1895

Flora Brasiliae meridionalis * Saint-Hilaire, Auguste de * sample image * 1825

Flora Java - Volume 2 * Blume, Carolo Ludovico * sample image * 1828

Flora Peruviana, et Chilensis Plates 1-152 * Ruiz, Hippolito; Pavon, Jose * sample image * 1798

Downed Pine Tree

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We called a tree service company as soon as we noticed that a pine in our yard was leaning toward the house. They came and said the tree would have to be cut down…no way to save it….and they would be back in 4-6 weeks (evidently they were backlogged). We called another company, and their backlog was even longer.

They did better than their estimate – coming in 3 weeks. By then the tree had fallen. A holly tree and bush got crushed/brushed by the top branches; fortunately the holly only had a few broken branches and no damage to the trunk; the bush seems to have fared even better.

The cross section of the tree shows that it was not a healthy tree. Perhaps one side of the trunk had been damaged (maybe hit by a mower several years ago?) so the tree did not grow uniformly around the center.

After they cut the pine, arrangements were made for an underground utility survey before they came back to grind the remains of the stump. The grinding was done via a remotely controlled machine! It was just a mound of dirt and wood shavings afterward.  

I already miss the tree. This is the first time we’ve removed a tree from our yard…and it is a little traumatic to have something as large/significant suddenly gone. On a positive note: mowing the yard is a little less convoluted now and the grass should fill in quickly.

Big Lagoon State Park and a Beach Sunset

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Big Lagoon State Park entailed the longest hike of our Pensacola trip. There are still some parts of the park closed for repair from damage caused by Hurricane Sally in 2020 but plenty of area open to explore. While my husband was getting his camera out of the bag and into a harness, I concentrated on a life oak tree at the edge of the parking lot. There was a downy woodpecker working its way around the branches and a butterfly resting in a sunny spot underneath!

The trail was sandy or boardwalk. There was curly lichen and

One of my favorites – powderpuff lichen. There was a healthy community of ground-based lichen among dried live oak leaves within easy zoom distance of my camera from the boardwalk.  

The same was true of some shelf fungus on a stump.

We reached the lagoons. A brown headed cowbird pair was perusing the area.

There were turtles in the water…enjoying the warming morning. There were signs warning of alligators, but we didn’t see any.

There were different kinds of ferns….providing the floor of the live oak and pine forest.

The pines tower over everything else in the park!

Later in the day we went to the Pensacola Beach Pier. There were too many people and loud music to make it a place for bird watching.

We stopped on the way back to the hotel at the Quietwater Beech area. The sun was setting and a laughing gull’s breast reflected the color!

3 mallard ducks (2 males, 1 female) made their way across the sand…kicking up sand with their webbed feet.

It was a good finale to our day in Pensacola.

Plant of the month – Pine

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We have three pines in our new yard, and I appreciate them as big contributors to the greens of January. Only one of them appears to have cones…and it has a lot of them in all stages of development. It has shorter needles than the other two.

I enjoyed taking some macro images of the cones close to the ground. As the cones get very old, I will probably harvest some of them to add to the pinecone wreath that was made years ago from cones from my sister’s house. It will be a good way to fill in thin places as the wired cones (that are larger) shift a little…and add even more of my heritage to the wreath.

I read an article recently about pine needle tea and have started cutting a small handful of pine needles from the two longer needle pines to add to the black tea bag and home-dried orange peel in my tea maker (a coffee maker that has never-ever been used for coffee!). I like the flavor of the result…no sweetener required…and it smells good too.

Our (new) Yard – June 2022

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A quick walk around our back yard…on my way to a walk before the heat of the day.

There are still a few roses. I’ll water them and hope that the blooms will linger. There are still buds but the heat could be problematic for them.

There are pines and hollies around the deck with steppingstone paths through the beds to the lawn. The lower patio is very private and will be in the winter as well. We see the neighborhood tennis courts and pool over our fence from the 1st floor but the basement level, where my office is located, is a green walled oasis. I love it already.

There are a few plants blooming – they probaby need water too – and there is grass growing into them. I need to find my gardening gloves and clear out the undesirable intrusions into the flower beds.

My sister bought us a glass bird bath that has a solar cell in the base that glows at night. Our first addition to our yard. I can see it from my office window.

There is a swallow nest over the patio – under the deck – and we are avoiding the area in an effort to not upset the parents as they are frantically feeding their hungry young.

Harriet Tubman Byway/Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

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The 2nd of 4 Delmarva Birding field trips was Birding the Harriet Tubman Byway. It was a mixture of cultural and natural history of the area around Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and Cambridge, Maryland – an area Harriet Tubman knew well as she was growing up and returned to after she escaped slavery to help others make their way to freedom. There is a map of the byway available from the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center (we stopped there before the field trip…great orientation for the cultural history portion of the field trip) of the sites along the byway; our field trip visited a handful of them with excellent guides. From a natural history perspective - two species that are gone for the scene that she would have known are the American Chestnut and Carolina Parakeet.

The birding at Blackwater NWR was spectacular – just as every time I visit the place; it is where I saw my first Bald Eagle in the wild (in 1990 when my daughter was a baby). This year there were several Bald Eagle pairs that are nesting at the refuge. At one nest, the babies had evidently just been fed and were sleeping off their meal; the adult was still at the nest watching over them.

Osprey are making use of the nesting platforms and snags. There are more snags that ever because the water level is rising at the refuge…killing more trees that remain standing for a few years.

The muskrat mounds in the marsh were numerous. The color of the mounds is good camouflage for small birds. One of our guides commented that sometimes an eagle wll perch for a little while on a mound. If the muskrats are home…they probably go very still until the large bird leaves!

Rusty, the screech owl, is a well-known resident along the wildlife loop. The bird has a favorite perch in a pine with an hollow which provides protection for the bird’s back/sides. The hole where the bird might ‘live’ and raise young is in a nearby tree. The eyes moved while we watched but the bird was otherwise very still.

There are still parts of the refuge where the water level can be controlled; small fish swam in the shallow water….good snacks for some of the birds we were seeing.

Great Blue Herons are nesting at Blackwater. They like the tall pines just as the eagles do.

Great Egrets were also fishing in the shallows. I learned that they too were nesting at the refuge, but I didn’t see those nests.

Somehow moss and pine needles seemed an appealing mini-landscape on the spring day.

Redwing blackbirds were noisy….defending territory…finding mates.

The field trip group continued into Cambridge to the courthouse – a place where the laws governing slavery in Harriet Tubman’s time were administered. The short lecture and conversation were thought provoking and heartbreaking. Fortunately, the field trip ended on a happy note at the nearby Harriet Tubman mural in Cambridge.

Stay tuned for my posts about 2 more Delmarva Birding field trips!

Brookside Gardens Macro – March 2022 (2)

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Continuing the Brookside Gardens macro images…..

The dried flower clusters of the wood hydrangea from last season look fragile but they have endured all winter and many are still on the stalks. A few leaves have survided as well. The leaf I photographed with the macro lens still had some green…was probably still producing food for the plant! Most of the leaves from last season are long gone though.

The witch hazels are one of my favorite winter and spring trees. They bloom very early….and have unusual flowers – streamer petals.

The suction cups of a vine growing on the wall of the visitor center have held it firm all winter! They look so fragile…but are evidently quite durable.

I hadn’t noticed the Deodar cedar in the Brookside 1969-2009 Commemorative Garden before – I only know its name from the sign at its base. The needles and cones were a bit different than the evergreens I see more frequently. Taking a walk with my camera frequently causes me to notice something a little different!

As I walked back to my car – I saw some more familiar pines…took some macro images of the pinecones and a small branch with needles on the ground. I’m always seeking new insight into common items through the macro lens! The fibers in the breaks of the pinecones surprised me.

The pines have a lot of lichen on their trunks and branches…and some of it sluffs off. I thought the pieces in the grass with the dried pine needles made good color and texture compositions.