Herbarium vivum

The images were produced by a process doubtless suggested by engraving and lithography whereby an object coated with printer's ink or other suitable substance, is pressed onto paper, leaving behind an impression.

The impression could then be painted over in colour with the certainty that form and size had been accurately fixed.

[1] The technique was adapted to circumstance, leading to mounting of dried plant material such as flowers, leaves or fruits, and supplemented by painting or sketching parts too bulky for pressing, so that a reasonable semblance of the complete plant could be formed.

Henrik Bernard Oldenland, a Cape Colony botanist assembled a Herbarium vivum of some 13 volumes which found their way into the possession of Johannes Burman, professor of botany in Amsterdam.

In 1834 the astronomer John Herschel, facing a similar problem of accurate delineating, used a camera lucida to pencil in the outlines of Cape Colony plants while his wife Margaret then painted in the details.