Description
The Biodiversity Heritage Library has placed scans of Catesby’s plates and the related texts online (see References below). In text that originally accompanied this print, Catesby explains that he depicted them together because they are found in the same ecosystem and posits that the hollows of the pitcher plant leaves provide a hiding place for insects from predators such as the frog. Later botanists discovered that it is in fact a carnivorous plant and the liquid that Catesby noticed in the hollows helps it trap and digest insects. The following description bears his original punctuation, spelling and capitalization:
Rana Aquatica: The Water Frog.
These Frogs are of various Sizes, tho’ commonly about the Bigness of the Figure Their Limbs are very long; the Upper-part of the Head, Body, and Limbs dusky Green, spotted with Black: From the Eyes to the Rump extends two yellow Lines; two white Lines also reach from each Eye to the Nose The Eyes are large, black, and circled with Yellow Irides. These are not seen on dry Land, they frequent Rivulets and Ditches of Water, and will leap at once five or six Yards.
Sarracena, foliis brevioribus latioribus Sarracena Canadensis, foliis cavis & auritis.
The Leaves of this, like the precedent, spring from a fiberous Root, to the Height of six or eight Inches, they are likewise hollow, swelling and more protuberant than the former, and differently shaped, as in the Figure; they are of a yellow green Colour, striped and veined with Purple. The Flowers of this Plant rise considerably higher than the Leaves, and are of a purple Colour, except which the Flowers and Seed Vessels of this and the preceedent are formed alike. The Hollow of these Leaves, as well as of the other Kind, always retain some Water, and seem to serve as an Asylum or secure Retreat for numerous Insects from Frogs and other Animals, which feed on them.
These Plants grow usually in the same Places with the foregoing.
The print is from Mark Catesby’s The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. Catesby’s work was a formative and important series of 220 natural history prints of birds, animals, fish and plants native to the southeast United States and the Bahamas. The first edition of Catesby’s work contained 220 fine hand-colored, folio size plates after his natural history paintings, many of which he etched himself, together with descriptions in English and French (London: 1731-43). George Edwards (1694-1773) revised and reissued both volumes as the second edition (London, 1751-55). The publisher Benjamin White reissued Edward’s edition, adding Linnaean names to all Catesby’s plants and animals as the third edition (1771-75). Also, the third edition reissued circa 1815-1816. This particular example of the print can be tentatively identified as third edition, first issue, being printed on fine wove paper; the paper has no watermark.
Mark Catesby’s important work was the first comprehensive publication on the natural history of the New World. Catesby trained principally as a botanist in England. Beginning in 1712, he spent seven years in Virginia, amassing collections of plant and animal specimens, which he shipped back to wealthy patrons in England. With their encouragement, he undertook a comprehensive color plate study, returning to North America for an extended stay in 1722. He learned the art of print etching so he could control the quality of the final product. The first edition of his Natural History was published in London, in parts, from 1731 to 43. In that seminal work, his depictions of birds, which comprise 109 of the 220 illustrations, contributed to the development of scientific color-plate book ornithological illustration having several innovative qualities: the placement of many of the birds in natural environments and/or with local plant life; precise scientific naturalism; and the folio format. Other illustrations included fish, reptiles, mammals as well as botanical illustrations of native plants, including their flowers and fruit. In the 18th century and into the first half of the 19th century, Catesby’s works remained a definitive source for information about New World birds, consulted such notable persons as Audubon, Thomas Jefferson and Lewis and Clark in the United States, and Linnaeus in Europe.
Condition: Generally very good, recently professionally cleaned and deacidified, with light overall remaining toning, wear, and handling. Some faint remnants of dampstain in the outer margins, a few short marginal tears professionally closed verso with mulberry paper, a few irregularities to margin edges including small chips — all easily matted out if framed.
References:
Catesby, Mark. The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands… Online: Biodiversity Heritage Library. Vol. 2, 70. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/126154#page/217/mode/1up (24 May 2022).
Stewart, Doug. “Mark Catesby.” Smithsonian Magazine. August 31, 1997. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mark-catesby-51795143/ (7 April 2020).
“Water frog and purple pitcher plant.” Royal Collection Trust. https://www.rct.uk/collection/926021/water-frog-and-purple-pitcher-plant (24 May 2022).
