Page 14 - St Giles Catesby booklet MC StG 20210723 e-flip_Neat

Lilythorn
Mark Catesby, 1743. The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama islands,
volume 2, plate 100.
Lilythorn (Catesbaea spinosa) in flower with fruits
and two tiger swallowtail butterflies (Papilio glaucus)
Although the tubular flowers resemble
those of some lilies, this spiny shrub or
small tree is not a lily, but a relative of the
madders (for example, Rubia peregrina) and
coffee (for example, Coffea arabica) plants.
The fruits of the lilythorn are said to be
edible and the spines make the shrubs
ideal for hedges in tropical countries. In
the wild it occurs in rocky limestone
habitats and is reported growing in Cuba
as well as on the Bahama Islands.
Mark Catesby brought the seeds
from the Bahamas to England in 1726
and distributed these to gardeners. As
well, he had pressed specimens for
sharing with interested botanists, one of
whom proposed that this plant should
bear Catesby's name. Thus, when he came
to describing the final plate in his book,
Catesby, wrote:
It is not without Reluctancy, that I here
exhibit a Plant with my own Name annexed
to it; but the Regard and Obligations I owe to
my learned Friend Dr. J. F. Gronovius of
Leyden, who was pleased some Years since to
honour me, tho' undeservedly, with the Title
of the Genus, obliges me not to suppress it.
A few other plants including the
leopard (or pine) lily (Lilium catesbaei) and
several animals notably the American
bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus), have been
named after Mark Catesby, a distinction
conferred by fellow naturalists on this
pioneer of American natural history.