Antique French Framed Herbarium Specimen - Euphorbia (Spurge)

Antique French framed herbarium specimen, or herbier: a pressed flowering spurge complete with its roots, hand-labelled in brown ink Euphorbia, Euphorbe, Euphorbiacees, mounted on blue-grey laid paper behind glass in a slim gilt frame. From a 19th- or early-20th-century French botanical study collection.

The roots are what make this sheet. Most pressed specimens show only the parts above ground, and a complete plant with its root system intact is both scientifically better and visually far more interesting, giving the composition a full vertical sweep from tip to tail.