Vegetable Poisons. Fool's Parsley.. Celandine, Bryony. William Rhind c1866.

by Johnstone, John

Vegetable Poisons antique print. Aethusa Cynapium (Fool's Parsley), Arum Maculatum (Cuckoo Pint or Wake Robin), Brtyonia Alba (White Bryony), Chelidonium Majus (Greater or Common Celandine). 

Original hand-coloured steel engraving by John Johnstone, illustrating the practical applications of botany for A History of the Vegetable Kingdom by William Rhind (1797-1874), published circa 1866 by Blackie & Son of Glasgow, Edinburgh and London.

Having trained in medicine, Rhind became a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1818, after which he moved to London for two years. Returning to Elgin in Scotland Rhind set up a medical practice, and also sold medicines. Around 1824 he moved to Edinburgh. He did not entirely give up his medical practice and medical writings, but it seems he was more interested in lecturing in natural science, including botany, zoology and geology. In 1854 he also began lecturing in botany at the medical faculty of Merischal College in Aberdeen. Rhind's research and travel was amazing considering that throughout his life he was partially lame in both legs. According to one of his biographers Rhind was "universally loved for his character and bearing, and was a most amiable man."

Print page measures 25.5 x 17.5cm (approximately 10 x 7 inches).