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Gwen O'Dowd
Title: Arum Dracunculus
Size: 60 x 50 cm
Medium: Carborundum
Arum Dracunculus
This extremely foetid poisonous plant will not admit of sober
description. She comes peeping from her purple crest with mischief
fraught: from her green covent projects a horrid spear of darkest jet,
which she brandishes aloft: issuing from her nostrils flies a noisome
vapour infecting the ambient air: her hundred arms are interspersed
with white, as in the garments of the inquisition: and on her swollen
trunks are observed the speckles of a mighty dragon: her sex is
strangely intermingled with the opposite! Confusion dire! - all framed
for horror: or kind to warn the traveller that here are poison-
berries, grateful to the sight but fatal to the taste, such is the
plan of providence, and such her wise resolves.
Description taken from the Temple of Flora by Robert John Thornton
(1768-1837).
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