Poinsettia Flowers

It’s a shame this botanical print wasn’t scanned better but the good news is that the beautiful poinsettia flowers came out perfectly. (We lost the seed, plant structure and text at the bottom of the original.)

The poinsettia has so become associated with Christmas that I thought it belonged in both the vintage Christmas Images and Flower Illustration categories. There’s just something about these beautiful flowers that biologically aren’t really even flowers but brightly colored bracts.

I love the way the artist C. Muquardt Bruxelles added green tips to the edges of the red leaves. Makes it so much prettier, don’t you think. I couldn’t find any information about the artist other than more examples of his work. I do know that this drawing was included in a work published in France in 1880. The work was entitled Fleurs, fruits et feuillages choisis de l’ille de Java :peints d’après nature or Flowers, fruits and foliages selected from the island of Java: painted after nature.