A book of studies in plant

with some suggestions for their application to design

From Introduction:

One of the " notes " of recent decorative art has been its comparative disuse of the elements and forms of historic ornament, and its return to Nature, and especially to floral forms, for inspiration. Now it is seldom that the plant. most suitable for a particular design is in the season when it is wanted, and it is often so difficult (sometimes impossible) to find a drawing of the ornamental side of many plants, that the authors venture to hope that designers of all kinds will welcome a series of more or less decorative drawings and photographs from nature.

Their work is, however, intended in the first instance for students, and it was felt that to them a collection of suggestive designs would be even more useful than the naturalistic drawings. The authors have tried, therefore, to show how their plant forms might be simplified and converted into an ornament, and have included designs for simple space-filling, and also for such processes as gesso, stencilling, wallpapers, textiles, and so on.

To make the book more useful to art classes a short summary is given of the principles of design, but students are strongly re- commended to study the exhaustive treatment of this important subject in Mr F. G. Jackson's two books on Principles and Practice of Design. Concise accounts are also included of the technical requirements of the different processes illustrated; information so essential in practical designing.

A book of studies in plant - PDF book by A.E.V. Lilley