Talk:Corybas aconitiflorus

illustration credit

@Peter coxhead: As noted in the genus article, Corybas, there is some funny business with the first description by Salisbury. The image is credited to Wm Hooker here, which may be correct, but the assertion has been made (Hoffman and Brown, 2008, 2011) that an illustration by Ferdinand Bauer (produced for Robert Brown) was used for Salisbury's description. Your link to original source gives Salisbury's account of the specimen material, but I don't know if that is accurate or even possible. These are incidental notes in texts on orchids, one of which I don't have access to, so I am wondering whether going silent on the author of this image is the quick fix. cygnis insignis 08:23, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

Actually, you might not be interested in this puzzle. I saw from the history you were the creator, but only noticed this text was imported from another language after posting. cygnis insignis 08:32, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

@Cygnis insignis: Salisbury's names and descriptions have been the source of controversy for many years. See the discussion at The Paradisus Londinensis. However, what Salisbury based his descriptions on isn't relevant to the authorship of the image. There's never been doubt (as far as I am aware) that Wm Hooker did the illustrations in The Paradisus Londinensis. Whether he based the drawings on plants or on other people's drawings is another matter – copyright then was much more "flexible". Peter coxhead (talk) 10:39, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

A great pity these two disagreed with each other then became very bitter and twisted. The illustration in Paradisus Londinensis does give credit to W. Hooker: "Drawn & Pub. Oct. 1 1807, by W. Hooker". I think Salisbury used an illustration by Bauer in order to describe the species and thus get the naming rights but he didn't pinch the illustration. It might be a good idea to change the image caption and incorporate the link below. Gderrin (talk) 10:46, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

I forgot to mention that Hooker was a student of Franz, Ferdinand Bauer's brother, so the close similarity to the works of either is unremarkable. However, that does provide the connection (or opportunity) for copying the preprint version. The provider of plant material that Salisbury mentions in the text is, I think, Sarah, Countess of Essex. Before I forget, I'll also note that Brown's 1810 description, Corysanthes bicalcarata, was used until the 1940s when ICBN accepted Salisbury's Corybas. Hopefully I'll find the more on this tale. cygnis insignis 16:15, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

References