Hyacinths: Botanical Illustration from Flora of Haarlem

This plate from A. C. Van Eeden's horticultural survey presents two hyacinth varieties side by side: the pale peach I.S.R. Gigantea and the deep crimson Général Pelissier. Artist Arentine H. Arendsen renders each flower spike with botanical precision, capturing the clustered star-shaped florets characteristic of cultivated hyacinths. The tall, linear foliage grounds both specimens in naturalistic proportion. Such chromolithographic plates served practical purposes for Dutch growers and gardeners during the nineteenth century's expansion of commercial flower cultivation, particularly in the Haarlem region renowned for its bulb trade.