Cabinet of Curiosities

My expectations for a personal collection of plants  from my California trip were irresponsibly high. To start, my supplies consisted of one paperback  Plants of the Lewis & Clark Expedition  (inspiration) and just a few accumulated napkins from takeout earlier in the week (desperation). I carefully sandwiched plant parts between napkins and pages in an effort to dry and hopefully flatten my finds. Then, to my great dismay, on the last full day of the trip, I had left the plant book itself under my seating while in transit across San Francisco.  When I returned home from my modern journey west with a single, crinkly California poppy lacking all the sunny-orange glow that had originally caught my sights, I had to laugh. Through flood, injury, and other perils, the Lewis and Clark expedition successfully documented and returned to Philadelphia with nearly 200 plant samples new to Western Science and astounding attention to detail.