The older I get the more I become enamored of the Rudbeckias.
It is something about their jolly, "go for it" appearance I think!
This detail is from the 1826 engraving shown at the bottom of this post.
Here is another scan from another copy (remember, these are hand tinted.) This scan was not "cleaned up" to eliminate the background like Google Books too often does. I want to see the paper and I think the engraved lines have more personality.
Last year I bought "Dumbo", a named variety of Rudbeckia maxima which has amused me no end this year when it finally took off, growing almost 8 feet with one stem and one flower! I am saving the seeds. A patch of them will be hilarious.
Our drawing of this plant was taken from some fine flowering specimens obligingly given to us by Robert Barclay, Esq. of Bury Hill, when we had the pleasure of visiting his valuable and rare collection last Autumn.
The plant from which the specimens were taken, was about 5 feet high, and entirely covered with its fragrant flowers, which made a fine appearance; it is certainly one amongst the finest of the strong-growing plants that flower in Autumn, and succeeds well in the common garden soil, where the situation is not too moist, and may be increased by dividing at the root, or by seeds, which sometimes ripen.
Pursh mentions it as growing in the western parts of Carolina and Georgia, flowering from July to October.
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