Banks' Florilegium
HIBISCUS MERAUKENSIS (MALVACEAE)
Common name - Native Hibiscus or Bush Hibiscus
 
Line engraving by Gerald Sibelius, after Sydney Parkinson (1770) and Frederick Polydore Nodder (1778) Joseph Banks and his party saw this species at: Bustard Bay, Australia (22 May - 24 May 1770) Palm Island, Australia (7 June 1770) Cape Grafton, Australia (9 June - 10 June 1770) Endeavour River, Australia (17 June - 4 August 1770)
This plant is named after the town of Merauke in southern New Guinea where it is also found. The species occurs as herbs or small spindly shrubs, the colour of the flower ranging from white to shades of pink.
Plate 23
Edition No 83/100
Unframed. 
Mount size - 570mm x 740mm 
Certificate of Authenticity - No. Each collection was originally sold as a set, therefore individual Certificates of Authenticity were never issued by the Publisher.
Each engraving is identified by a blind embossed stamp on the recto, recording the publisher's and printer's chops (ie: their signatures), the copyright symbol and date. The initials of the individual printer, the plate number and the edition number are recorded in pencil. The plate-marks are virtually uniform in size: 18 x 12 inches (457 x 305 mm), and the paper is Somerset mould-made 300gsm, each sheet watermarked 'AHE' and produced specially for this edition by the Inveresk Paper Company. The sheet of paper on which the image is printed measures 28½ x 21 inches (724 x 556 mm), and each of the engravings is protected within a double-fold sheet of the same acid free paper which has been cut to form a window mount. Every print includes watercolour embellishments added by artists working directly from Banks' own notes.