Vintage Natural History Illustration: Crested Fern (Lastrea cristata)

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Robert Frost

19th century botanical illustration of a crested fern (Lastrea cristata) from c1850 by British illustrator Anne Pratt (1806–1893). Printable 4" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here. Larger image size available for licensing. Please inquire.

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