Arcadópolis
Passion Flowers
Louisa Anne Meredith, 1836
What you see
Three passion flowers are arranged in a zigzag. Top left, one with lilac petals and a crown of purple filaments; lower right, the largest, red, its center thick with black and white dots; lower left, a white one with purple filaments and yellow stamens. Between them climb stems with leaves of several shapes and tendrils coiled like springs.
The red of the large flower catches the eye first, which then rises to the two paler ones. The filaments are drawn one by one, like fine eyelashes. Watch for the green and yellow stamens at the center of each flower, which resemble parts of a tiny mechanism, and the loose tendrils curling on the left.
About Louisa Anne Meredith
Louisa Anne Meredith was born in Birmingham and, before she married, had already published in England, under her maiden name, Twamley, books of poems and flowers illustrated by herself. In 1839 she married and emigrated to Australia, and from 1840 she lived in Tasmania. A writer, naturalist and illustrator, she painted the flowers, birds and insects of the Tasmanian bush in great detail, and published her plates in books such as “Some of My Bush Friends in Tasmania”. She was also a member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
More by Louisa Anne Meredith
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