Clandestine Marriage This page intentionally left blank CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE Botany and Romantic Culture theresa m. kelley The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2012 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2012 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kelley, Theresa M. Clandestine marriage : botany and Romantic culture / Theresa M. Kelley. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4214-0517-9 (hdbk. : acid-free paper) — ISBN 1-4214-0517-2 (hdbk. : acid-free paper) 1. Literature, Modern—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Botany in literature. 3. Plants in literature. 4. Literature and science. 5. Romanticism. I. Title. PN56.B73K45 2012 8099.93364–-dc23 2012002236 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or [email protected]. The Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-consumer waste, whenever possible. Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix List of Abbreviations xi 1 Introduction 1 2 Botanical Matters 17 3 Botany’s Publics and Privates 52 4 Botanizing Women 90 5 Clare’s Commonable Plants 126 INTERLUDE ONE Mala’s Garden: A Caribbean Interlude 159 6 Reading Matter and Paint 162 INTERLUDE two A Romantic Garden: Shelley on Vitality and Decay 210 7 Restless Romantic Plants and Philosophers 216 8 Conclusion 246 Notes 263 Bibliography 299 Index 325 This page intentionally left blank Illustrations Following page 66 1 Wheat Stalk study, Franz Bauer 2 Stems and Petioles, Franz Bauer 3 Rafflesia arnoldi, Franz Bauer 4 The American Cowslip, Peter Henderson 5 Dragon Arum, Peter Henderson 6 Curious American Bog Plants, Philip Reinagle, artist, D. Maddan, engraver 7 Venus Fly-Trap, William Bartram 8 Bandana of the Everglades or Golden Canna, William Bartram 9 American Lotus, etc., William Bartram 10 Exhibition Extraordinaire in the Horticultural Room, G. Cruik shank 11 Trapa bispinosa, Roxburgh Indian artist Following page 98 12 Young Daughter of the Picts, Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues 13 Sensitive Flower, J. J. Grandville 14 Lichen pyxidalus, Frances Beaufort Edgeworth 15 Ophrys apifera. Bee Orchis or Beeflower, Frances Beaufort Edgeworth 16 Dryas octopetala, Frances Beaufort Edgeworth 17 Bigonia and Aristolochia, Frances Beaufort Edgeworth 18 Passiflora(species not indicated), Frances Beaufort Edgeworth 19 Magnolia grandiflora, Mary Delany 20 Passiflora laurifolia, Mary Delany 21 Ixia Crocata (Triandria Monogynia), Mary Delany 22 Physalis, Winter Cherry, Mary Delany 23 Rara avis, after Katherine Charteris Grey 24 Cycnoches Loddigensii, Katherine Charteris Grey 25 Pterostylis obtusa, Katherine Charteris Grey viii illustrations 26 Erica pubescens, Katherine Charteris Grey 27 Orphrys muscifera, Fly Orchis, James Sowerby Following page 178 28 Banian Tree, Maria Graham 29 The Indian Burr, or, Banian Tree, James Forbes 30 Convolvulus gangeticus R., Roxburgh Indian artist 31 Pandanus odoratissimus [fruit], Roxburgh artist 32 Pandanus odoratissimus [whole plant] 33 Borassus flabelliformis 34 Trapa bispinosa [detail], Roxburgh artist 35 Nymphaea lotus alba, Roxburgh Indian artist 36 Nelumbium speciosum, Roxburgh Indian artist 37 Nymphea Lotos, Blue Water-Lily of Guzerat, James Forbes 38 Leea macrophylla, Roxburgh Indian artist 39 Bombax heptaphyllum, Roxburgh Indian artist 40 Saccharum exaltatum, Roxburgh Indian Artist 41 Calamus rotang, Roxburgh Indian Artist 42 Menyanthes cristata, Roxburgh Indian artist 43 Pistia stratiotes, Roxburgh Indian artist 44 Trichosanthes heteroclita, Roxburgh Indian artist 45 [Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala], G. Cruikshank 46 Orchidaceae title page, Bateman 47 Vignette, after Schomburgkia Tibicinis orchid plate 48 Cycnoches Ventricosum, Jane Edwards 49 Orchidaceae tail-piece, after Katherine Charteris Grey Acknowledgments I dedicate this book to Thomas Baylis, always my companion as I wrote this book in Austin, then Madison, on Lake Superior, across three continents, and over several years. My work on the book has received generous support, beginning with fellowships from the University of Texas at Austin, the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the Marjorie and Lorin Tiefenthaler Fund, the English De- partment, the Graduate School, and the Institute for Research in the Humanities have provided time to write. Residential fellowships at the Henry E. Huntington Library and the Yale Center for British Art supported the final stages of research. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Simon D. Guggenheim Founda- tion awarded year-long fellowships as I completed this book. I am most grateful to all. Numerous archives and their professional staffs have made this book pos- sible, among them the Botany Library of the Natural History Museum, London, in particular Malcolm Beasley, the librarian, and Judith Magee, now curator for the Natural History Library. At the Library and Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, James Kay, former assistant curator, Prints and Drawings, willingly made resources at Kew accessible. Gina Douglas, former librarian of the Linnean Society, London, introduced me to the resources of that library early on, and on one visit invited me to ride in a van taking Linnaeus’s butterfly collection across London. Henry J. Noltie, taxonomist at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, has advised this project with unstinting generosity, answered questions of all kinds, and introduced me to the Indian botanical drawings at Edinburgh and elsewhere. If there are mistakes in this book, he is decidedly not responsible. Peter Stevens and David Mabberley have answered nearly as many questions. Jim Folsom, director of the Huntington Botanical Gardens, and staff mem- bers Kitty Connolly and Katrina White have welcomed inquiries and entertained notions. At the Henry E. Huntington Library, Alan Jutzi, Mary Robertson, Steve Tabor, and Jean-Robert Durbin offered archival direction. At the Yale Center for British Art, its Director Amy Meyers and her colleagues, Michael Hatt, Elizabeth Fairman, Gillian Forrester‚ Scott Wilcox‚ Lisa Ford, and Melissa Fournier Gold have x acknowledgments given this project imaginative and archival support. Librarians at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Robin Rider, Mary Rader, and Elsa E. Althen, have read- ily responded to inquiries and located documents. Donald C. Johnson, Director Emeritus of the Ames Library of South Asia, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis– St. Paul, guided my early study of Indian textile traditions. For invitations to lecture on parts of this book, I thank Anne Secord and mem- bers of the Cabinet of Natural History Seminar at Cambridge University, including James Secord, Nicholas Jardine, and Martin J. S. Rudwick; Sonia Hofkosh and other participants in the Romantic Literature and Culture seminar at Harvard University; Karen Weisman and Alan Bewell at the University of Toronto; Paul Cirico at Cam- bridge University, Leah Marcus at Vanderbilt University, W. Roger Louis, Director of British Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and Guillermina de Ferrari at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. I am thankful to colleagues have read chapters of this book and debated its claims: Elizabeth Hedrick, Lisa Moore, Lynn Festa, Aparna Dharwadker, David Clark, B. Venkat Mani, Robin Valenza, Julie Carlson, Daniel White, Deidre Lynch, Richard Sha, Rob Nixon, Anne McClin- tock, Kevin Gilmartin, and Eric Rothstein. Fernando Vidal, Gábor Zemplén, and seminar participants at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Ber- lin commented on completed chapters. In India, Deepak Kumar invited me to present my work on Indian botany and the British to other scholars and students at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Druv Raina offered a wider historical lens for thinking about European and Indian intellectual exchange. Deepak and Neelam Kumar made us welcome in Delhi. Arun Bandopadhyay hosted our visit to Calcutta and my lecture to his colleagues and students at the University of Calcutta. Aditi Sarkar has long been an intellectual companion to this project, in Ahmedabad and at long distance. Abhay Mangaldas, Head of the House of Mangaldas Girdhardas, kindly introduced me to Mrs. Gina Sarabhai, Chairperson of the Calico Museum of Textiles. Dr. M. Sanjappa, Direc- tor of the Botanical Survey of India, and Mrs. Sanjappa welcomed us to Calcutta. Librarians at the Botanical Archives in the Calcutta Botanical Garden in Howrah provided generous access to those remarkable holdings. For their hospitality to this traveler and project, I thank Sue McMahan, Sherrl Yanowitz, Neil Rogall, John Archer, and Brenda and Martin Adlam. Several gradu- ate assistants have provided valuable archival assistance: Sharon Twigg, Jonathan Ewell, Mark Lounibos, Mary Mullen, Kate Vieira, Matthias Rudolf, Jessica Citti, Jason Cohen, Gwendolyn Blume, Victor Lenthe, Lenora Hanson, Joshua Taft, and finally Naomi Salmon. I thank Yvonne Schofer, librarian emerita indeed, for editing this book superbly as a gift of friendship. Dennis Marshall