Futility Closet

Nonsense Botany

Posted in Art, Literature by Greg Ross on May 26th, 2005

From Edward Lear's "Nonsense Botany" (1871):

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/4/13647/13647-h/13647-h.htm

Bottlephorkia Spoonifolia.

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/4/13647/13647-h/13647-h.htm

Manypeeplia Upsidownia.

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/4/13647/13647-h/13647-h.htm

Phattfacia Stupenda.

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/4/13647/13647-h/13647-h.htm

Piggiwiggia Pyramidalis.

"I was much distressed by next door people who had twin babies and played the violin," he once wrote. "But one of the twins died, and the other has eaten the fiddle — so all is peace."