Vintage book plate from 1878. It’s from Familiar Indian Flowers by Lena Lowis. This plumbago capensis illustration shows the lovely blue flowers of this shrub. It generally only grows three or four feet tall. It’s similar to phlox, with similar flowers. However, given something to climb upon, it can reach upwards of 20 feet tall. It’s native to South Africa and India.
The name might be familiar to chemistry students. The name has a root from the Latin word plumbum or lead. It is said to be used to treat lead poisoning. But, for the most of us, we just grow it for its lovely blue flowers.
This is one of several nice, big vintage flower illustrations from the same book. It’s too big to show here; so if you would like to see and download the largest size, just click on the plumbago capensis illustration below.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
