Silk Cotton Tree, Wild Ipecacuan

This watercolor illustration of Bombax gossipium, or silk cotton tree, is the first plate in the 1799 work, A Collection of Exotics, from the Island of Antigua by the botanical artist Lydia Byam (1772-unknown). The Byams were a powerful, slave-owning family who operated sugar plantations in Antigua. While little biographical information has been gathered on Byam, an letter bound in to one of her rare editions has identified her as the older sister of William Gunthorpe, governor of Antigua. Byam’s social status and connections gave her the unique opportunity of producing her work in Antigua and distributing it in Britain to help satisfy increasing interest in the plants growing in the expanding British Empire.

Byam produced two collections of botanical drawings on hand-colored plates, A Collection of Fruits from the West Indies (1799) and A Collection of Exotics, from the Island of Antigua (1800). With these works, Byam transferred knowledge regarding exotic plant species of the New World, such as the silk cotton tree, the pawpaw tree, and the potato vine to Europe. Alongside her illustrations, Byam noted the various uses for the species, such as the production of oil from castor beans and gum from the acacia bush. With this illustration, Byam notes the medicinal qualities of wild ipecacuan and guaiacum.