Georg Dionysius Ehret (German, 1708-1770)
(Pink azalea or Pinxter flower, Virginia Rockrose, Rhododendron periclymenoides)
Cistus; Virginiana, flore & odore Peridymeni. D. Banist.
[“Virginia Rockrose, with the flower and scent of a Honeysuckle”]
Pencil and watercolor, heightened with bodycolor and with touches of gum arabic, on laid paper,
watermarked ‘IV’
Signed ‘G.D.Ehret. P.’ (lower right) and inscribed ‘Cistus; Virginiana, flore & odore Peridymeni. D. Banist.’ (lower center) and numbered ‘3/44 / 3’ (lower left, on a tab)
Paper size: 20 ½ x 13 5/8 in.
Provenance: Charles Sackville Bale (1791-1880), London (†); Christie’s, London, 9 June 1881, part of lot 2291 (2 ¾ gns to Oliver). Possibly Professor Daniel Oliver, F.R.S. (1830-1916), London.
#AP02987

Although it was called “Virginia Rockrose,” the plant being described is actually a species of wild Azalea native to North America, most likely the Pinxter Flower (Rhododendron periclymenoides). Early explorers noted that while it looked somewhat like a Mediterranean Rockrose, its sweet fragrance and tubular flowers strongly reminded them of European Honeysuckle.

Ehret uses early botany terminology to describe this plant. His titling breaks down as follows: Cistus was often used broadly for shrubs with rose-like flowers, Virginiana indicates its origin in the Virginia colony, flore & odore means “with the flower and scent,” and peridymeni, a variation of Periclymenum, was an old name for Honeysuckle. D. Banist reveals Ehret’s source - John Banister. Banister was an English clergyman and naturalist living in Virginia, who collected more than 350 pressed sheets of plants that eventually ended up in the hands of his former neighbor, the English botanist John Ray. Ray developed a way of naming plants by assigning them a Latin description. One of Banister’s plants, he called “Cistus Virginiana, flore et odore Periclymeni,” which translates to “a Virginia plant like a rock rose that smells like a honeysuckle.”