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 a seller with a nice bunch of them all by a N.N. Jones, and I just went back to her for a few more.
This one is Galium trifidum, also known as three-petal bedstraw, a flowering plant in the coffee family with tiny white flowers, leaves consistently "whorled" in 4s, and delicate little leaflets on branching stems. Very balletic looking to me, and the stalk has enough of a depth to cast a bit of nice shadow.
Both the plant and the paper are in very good shape, with 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.
