Malus Citria Cornuta

Title

Malus Citria Cornuta

Description

This beautiful hand colored engraving has been selected from a French work entitled Naauwkeurige Beschryving der Aardgewassen, published in Leiden and Utrecht (Pieter vander Aa and Francois Halma) in 1696 under the supervision of Abraham Munting.

ca. 1696

Artist

Munting (1626-1683)

Abraham Munting was a dutch botanical his father was Hendrik Munting (1583–1658). In 1682 he siisued his famous plant work with 40 copper prints: Waare Oeffening der Planten and inn 1682, the second eddition. Becaus it was so famous he issued in 1696 the third one, now with 245 copper plates. In 1702 it has been translated into Latin laguage from Franz Kiggelaer.

Historical Description

Plant science, or botany, deals in detail with the diversity of the plant world and tries to bring it into a system. The plants are examined in terms of structure, growth, life cycle, reproduction, metabolism and chemical properties. Plant science is one of the oldest sciences: people have been studying the effects of certain plants since early on. What was of interest was whether these were edible or of a healing nature. Today, five sub-areas make up botany. Plant morphology studies plant structure and form. This includes the internal and external structure as well as the structure of the plant cell. Plant physiology examines functional processes such as metabolism. Plant systematics brings order to the plant world. It describes precisely the different types of plants. Geobotany deals with the location of the plants. This includes the interaction between the plant and its environment. Ecophysiology explores to what extent and why plants have adapted to their environment in the past. This is particularly interesting because this also happens in environments with hostile conditions.