Volume 1, Plate II, Root Systems of Various Plants, Albertus Seba

Albertus Seba’s 18th-century publication Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri, better known simply as his Thesaurus, provided a wealth of botanical and zoological information. The four-volume study describes, illustrates, and categorizes a variety of naturalia from the author’s own extensive and celebrated cabinet of curiosities. Although Seba died before completing the last two volumes, he managed to produce the illustrations for books III and IV to which textual descriptions were added and falsely attributed to him because of the credibility of his name. In this plate, Seba illustrates the intravenous system, or “skeleton,” and roots of a turnip; the grain, roots, and leaves of a species of Hordeum (a genus in the grass family that includes barley); and the root systems of members of the genera Scorzonera (in the sunflower family), Beccabunga (which includes the herb Brooklime), and Pyrus (pear trees and shrubs).