The last country to be visited in my search for bromeliad icons is France. Encyclopedias and dictionaries were very popular in the 19th century and the Encyclopedie Methodique was a vey voluminous one. It was published both in Paris and Liege between 1782 and 1832. The 8 volumes and 5 supplements on botany were mainly edited by J.B. de Lamarck and J.L. Poiret. They were also the authors of Tableau encyclopedique et methodique des trois regnes de la nature Botanique in 6 volumes (3 tomes) from 1791-1823; a total of 1000 monochrome engravings were made for this work, but none of a bromeliad. The plates were reissued in 1823 in 4 parts titled Recueil de planches de botanique de lEncyclopedie. Some of the drawings for this encyclopedia were made by P.J. Redoute, who is known for his album LesLiliacees, published in Paris in 1804. The text for Les Liliacees was written by A.P. de Candolle and it contained some plates of bromeliads (Pitcairnias, Bromelias and Ananas). There has been an article in the BSI Journal on this publication (Read 1986).

A very ambitious lithographical work was Florae Fluminensis icones by Jose Mariano da Conceicao Vellozo (or Velloso), a Brazilian friar in the Franciscan order. Vellozo collected and studied plants for 25 years; in 1790 he went to Lisbon in Portugal to publish his flora. Initially 554 engravings were made in Venice (Italy) but due to political turmoil Vellozo had to go back to Brazil, taking along the drawings. After his death in 1811, they were found by friar Antonio de de Arrabida. The Brazilian emperor Pedro I commissioned the work to be published. The drawings, all of Brazilian plants, were send to Paris and printed by E. Knecht of the firm founded by A. Senefelder (the inventor of the lithographic technique). The 3000 printed copies of a final total of 1640 plates, dated 1827, were shipped to Rio de Janeiro, but only a small number were distributed there in 1831, the bulk went to a paper factory. Bound in 11 volumes of large format (52x35 cm.), volume 3 contained 23 plates of Bromeliaceae. The monochrome illustrations are not detailed but give an idea of the morphology of the plants, though the species on some of them can not be determined. The incomplete...