Plumbago auriculata

Ten ways of seeing

• measured cast yellow-green
• upright 1.51 : 1
• published 1818
• Plate 108

Not a catalogue entry but a way of looking: how to stand, what to notice, how the line was cut — then, halfway, a line of Chinese poetry: how the ancients saw this same flower. After it, the flower's language, its season and homeland, its book; and at the end one line of classical prose — and a pair of eyes to take away.

1. 01

   First Look

   论画以形似，见与儿童邻。

   —— 宋·苏轼《书鄢陵王主簿所画折枝》

   To judge painting by likeness alone is the view of a child.

   The sheet is vertical: the eye climbs and settles in the upper half. Let the plant stand before you look for detail. Then step in close: watch where colour meets line, and whether the line ever breaks. Third, find the darkest small patch: the whole tonal order is measured from there.

2. 02

   Name and Thing

   The binomial is Plumbago auriculata: the first word is the genus it belongs among, the second the epithet that sets it apart. Two words carry a whole provenance. The Chinese name 蓝花丹 is a modern rendering of the Latin, not an old garden name.

3. 03

   Form and Colour

   Measured on this plate: flower colour is sparing, 0.7% of the sheet against 4.9% of foliage, the cast tending yellow-green — as with pale or white blooms, outline and tone do the talking. Flowering trees and shrubs put out branches first; blossoms open before or with the leaves, usually five thin, translucent petals around a cluster of fine stamens.No colour group is recorded. A single plant, laid out with nothing hidden.

4. 04

   Composition

   Tall and narrow, the plant rising in one movement with generous margins — the upright format of most floras. (about 1.51 : 1) No details are appended: a plate for looking, not for keying out. The plant covers only 8% of the sheet, centred near the centre; the emptiness is where the eye rests. Cover the margins with your thumb and the plate suffocates; uncover them and the flower breathes again.

5. 05

   Line and Colour

   The first half of the nineteenth century moved from copper to steel to lithography; stipple could render the softest transition. Craft leaves franker evidence than inscriptions. If you mean to copy it: take its skeleton, its margins and the order of its colours; the burin's hatching is the language of copper — suggest it with pencil density, do not imitate it stroke for stroke.

6. 06

   Poetic Resonance

   一尺深红胜曲尘，天生旧物不桃新。

   —— 唐·温庭筠《新添声杨柳枝词二首》

   The poem gives the mood first and the picture supplies the form; set the line beside the plate and the corolla becomes its resting point.

7. 07

   Symbolism

   Plum is solitude, peach is marriage, apricot is spring itself, crabapple is a fragile fate; the hibiscus, opening at dawn and falling at dusk, is impermanence. In a flora it is a species first and a symbol second; the order is worth keeping.

8. 08

   Season and Place

   Mid spring: plum first, then peach and apricot, cherry last — the season keeps its order. East Asia and temperate Eurasia. Plum, peach and apricot are Chinese in origin, grown for three thousand years. The year 1818 on the plate is that of publication, not of flowering — the gathering came a year or two earlier. The volume was made in 1818-1824, when most of this knowledge came from living plants under glass.

9. 09

   The Book and the Hand

   “Flora Italiana” was drawn by Gaetano Savi and published 1818-1824. This plate is Plate 108. The image is public domain; the hand-colouring is still one person's hand.

10. 10

    The Written Tradition

    《名医》曰：生晋山。案《说文》云：杏，果也。《管子·地员篇》云：五沃之土，其木宜杏，高诱注《淮南子》云：杏有窍在中。

    —— 神农本草经·杏核仁第三百五十四

    Lin Bu of Hangzhou famously took the plum as his wife and the crane as his son; the Book of Songs already used peach blossom to open a wedding song. Keep the line; it will surface the next time you meet the same plant.