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Stories

  • Article

Illuminated manuscripts, illuminating medicines

From rare bugs to exorbitantly priced plant parts, find out more about the artistic and medical uses of pigments from the past.

  • Article

姜、蒜、葱 Ginger, garlic and spring onions

Nina Mingya Powles felt adrift in the UK, living thousands of miles from home. But nurturing familiar tastes and smells in her tiny balcony garden helped her roots begin to grow.

  • Article

Cloves to mull, mask and numb

Sweet, pungent, warm, woody: cloves smell and taste like Christmas. But there’s much more to this spice than that.

  • Article

Hunting lost plants in botanical collections

A bark specimen at Kew recalls the story of a South American man who harvested the most potent source of the only effective malaria treatment available in the late 1800s. Killed for his work and forgotten by history, Manuel Mamani was a victim of the colonial juggernaut.

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Images

  • Rock tombs at Beni Hassan, Middle Egypt date from the Middle Kingdom dynasties XI (2060-1991 BCE) and XII (1991-1782 BCE) and rank among the most important monuments of Ancient Egypt. They were built for the dignitaries of Menat-Khufu, one of the oldest place names recorded in ancient Egypt. The tomb walls are decorated with mural paintings executed on rocky walls made smooth with plaster. These paintings are radidly deteriorating and most reproductions are from paintings of the originals. A small tree full of birds is shown at the bottom left of the tomb. Egypt is on the major migratory route between Europe and Africa which accounts for a variety of birds depicted in illustrations. After slaughter, birds were plucked and either roasted to be eaten immediately, or dried, salted and pickled in large amphorae. Wildfowl such as ducks, geese and cranes were sometimes fattened for the table and occassionally force-ded with bread and sweetened mash. Ducks and geese were also kept for eggs as were pigeons and pelicans. Domestic flow (chickens) were not introduced into Egypt in any numbers until the roman period (30 BCE-CE 395).
  • [Illustrated order form for The Chelsea Herbalist's (Worthing, west Sussex) bags of dried herbs and pot pourri].
  • [Illustrated order form for The Chelsea Herbalist's (Worthing, west Sussex) bags of dried herbs and pot pourri].
  • [Illustrated order form for The Chelsea Herbalist's (Worthing, west Sussex) bags of dried herbs and pot pourri].
  • [Illustrated order form for The Chelsea Herbalist's (Worthing, west Sussex) bags of dried herbs and pot pourri].
  • Temple of Confucius (Kong Miao), Peking: Hall of Great Accomplishment (Dachengdian), interior with altar and tablet to Confucius. Photograph, 1981, from a negative by John Thomson, 1871.
  • Temple of Confucius (Kong Miao), Peking: Hall of Great Accomplishment (Dachengdian), interior with altar and tablet to Confucius. Photograph, 1981, from a negative by John Thomson, 1871.
  • Matricaria recutita (Wild chamomile)
  • Glechoma hederacea (Ground ivy)
  • Balsamita major (Alecost or Costmary)
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Catalogue

All works (36)