The Nonsense Botany of Edward Lear

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Brief History of Nonsense Botany By Edward Lear

Edward Lear’s drawings of nonsense plants are similar to Lewis Carroll’s use of portmanteau words, combining unlike items or into a singular unity, such as the using a common item like a hair comb, into the nonsensical plant-like form of Smalltoothcombia Domestica.

The use of fake Latin, and following the standard genus species nomenclature of plants, like rosa canina — which is the REAL name for dog rose — provides enough real-grounding to make Lear’s botany nonsense, utterly charming.

Lear’s Nonsense Botany was published in three parts in the following publications:

• 1871, from Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets
• 1872, from More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes Botany…
• 1877, from Laughable Lyrics. A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany…

Please note that all of Edward Lear’s original publications are freely available in the public domain.