I have a fantasy that one day at a flea market I'll uncover a beautiful antique herbarium that's been sitting in the bottom of a box for 150 years or so filled with page upon page of perfectly documented pressed and dried plant specimens. Alas, this has yet to happen, but I did recently find this and a couple of others by the same maker, an N.N. Jones, I'd guess removed from a larger volume.
Eriophorum viginicum, also known as tawny cottongrass is a type of sedge, with a white cotton-like puffy head when mature. I believe this is a young one, and beautifully tethered and preserved, like a wispy line drawing. I especially love that the roots are still tightly holding a clump of dirt some 140 years later!
Both the plant and the paper are in very good shape, with minor wrinkling and a little age toning around the edges of the paper, which makes it feel all the more romantic. It has been backed with a bright white heavy weight sheet of rag paper just to protect it and which is easily removed. It alone measures 16" x 11 1/8". Shipped flat packed in glassine between sheets of cardboard.
