Alchemie Van De Indianen

seinfeld: Kramer wisdom. Kramer the one and only true god.

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:25:26 -0400

Kramer wisdom.

Kramer the one and only true god.

artifactrix: odditiesoflife: Monkey Orchids Mistakenly...

Fri, 24 May 2013 10:00:10 -0400

odditiesoflife:

Monkey Orchids

Mistakenly referred to as “Monkey Orchids,” none of the above species are in the Orchis simia family which is the genus for the monkey orchid. The above orchids are in the Dracula genus. Although they are constantly being misclassified, they still have adorable monkey faces which is good enough for me.

@tumbletower

alldaaaayyyy

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:33:37 -0400

alldaaaayyyy

Plants 'talk' through fungus network

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:18:31 -0400

Plants 'talk' through fungus network:

Plants can communicate the onset of an attack from aphids by making use of an underground network of fungi, researchers have found. Instances of plant communication through the air have been documented, in which chemicals emitted by a damaged plant can be picked up by a neighbour. But below ground, most land plants are connected by fungi called mycorrhizae.

huntingtonlibrary: William Sharp, one of the first...

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:37:29 -0400

huntingtonlibrary:

William Sharp, one of the first chromolithographic printers in the U.S., created these extraordinary illustrations for the large folio Victoria Regia (1854) by John Fisk Allen. Allen, a well-known horticulturalist, cultivated a specimen of the rare, huge (up to 8 feet in diameter), fast-growing (up to an inch an hour!) water lily, native to the Amazon. After months of careful tending, the plant—named in honor of the recently-crowned Queen Victoria—blossomed on the evening of July 21, 1853. Sharp’s depictions of this exotic wonder—in various stages of bloom—were masterpieces and elevated the then-nascent art of chromolithography to spectacular new heights.

image captions: All images are from a copy of Victoria Regia in our collections. Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

archatlas: The Surreal Books Jonathan Wolstenholme

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:36:37 -0400

archatlas:

The Surreal Books Jonathan Wolstenholme

Photo

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:20:57 -0400

medievalengravings: Doten dantz mit figuren, dance of death....

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:18:56 -0400

medievalengravings:

Doten dantz mit figuren, dance of death. The artist who engraved the woodcuts is unknown. The printer was probably Heinrich Knoblochter, who left Strasbourg in 1486 and settled down in Heidelberg. He would have printed this dance of death two years later.

Read the whole book here

biomedicalephemera: Top: Bichir and trunkfish [top], Electric...

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:08:23 -0400

biomedicalephemera:

Top: Bichir and trunkfish [top], Electric Catfish [bottom]
Center: Electric “eel” - Electrophorus electricus
Bottom: Indo-Pacific Moray Eel - Muraena nudivomer (now Gymnothorax nudivomer)

A while ago I saw this Bird and Moon illustration of animals with misleading names, but I kept seeing people asking, “Ok, if they’re not THAT, then what ARE they?” For some reason, I completely forgot that I wanted to cover those questions, but hey, better late than never!

The electric eel isn’t an eel - it’s a knifefish. Knifefish (Gymnotiformes) are actually more closely related to electric catfish (Siluriformes) than they are to true eels (order Anguilliformes), but developed their electroconductive organs through convergent evolution - the first signs of the organ evolution in both the electric eel and the electric catfish appeared after they shared a common ancestor.

In addition to electric eels and electric catfish, electric rays (order Torpediniformes) are the only other “strongly electric” fishes - that is, fish that produce electric shocks over one volt, and use their electrogenerative organs to either stun or kill prey and/or attackers. There are many fish that can produce a small current (“weakly electric”), but it is used for electrolocation and electrocommunication, instead.

Images:
Fishes of Zanzibar: Acanthopterygii. J. Van Voorst, 1866.
The Standard Natural History. John Sterling Kingsley, 1884.
Wild life of the world. Richard Lydekker, 1915.

upsetteeth: Poor little mouse, What did the bomb shelter do to...

Thu, 23 May 2013 01:34:24 -0400

upsetteeth:

Poor little mouse, What did the bomb shelter do to you?

bebe pitzzz

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:42:14 -0400

bebe pitzzz

That’s very true.

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:33:19 -0400

That’s very true.

wilburwhateley: Roberto Ferri, Metamorfosi

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:26:49 -0400

wilburwhateley:

Roberto Ferri, Metamorfosi

Despite its name, the maned wolf is not a wolf at all, nor is...

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:11:03 -0400

Despite its name, the maned wolf is not a wolf at all, nor is it a fox, coyote, or dog. It is the only member of the Chrysocyon genus, making it a truly unique animal, not closely related to any other living canid. One hypothesis for this is that the maned wolf is the last surviving species of the Pleistocene Extinction, which wiped out all other large canids from the continent.

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:53:26 -0400

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:51:48 -0400

nyjahatuatao: Gerhard Wiesbeck

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:14:28 -0400

nyjahatuatao:

Gerhard Wiesbeck

helveticas: wow I love this so...

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:02:51 -0400

helveticas:

wow I love this so much!!!! !!! !! !

fingersandfelines: GETTING INTO THE ART OF BONSAI ~~

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:26:49 -0400

fingersandfelines:

GETTING INTO THE ART OF BONSAI ~~

Photo

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:34:06 -0400