Plate 1 from Merian's 'Insectorum Surinamensium' showing a pineapple and cockroaches

This illustration of a pineapple is from the 1719 edition of Merian's Insectorium Surinamensium', and shows a pineapple with cockroaches. This is one of the earliest printed European illustrations of a pineapple, and in this book, Merian describes the pineapple must be "stripped of its coat before it can be it can be eaten" and "This fruit in taste has a snatch of the grape, the pomegranate; ribesia, apples & pears together"

Full title: 'Mariae Sibillae Merian Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium: in quâ, praeter vermes & erucas Surinamenses, earumque admirandam metamorphosin, plantae, flores & fructus, quibus vescuntur, & in quibus fuerunt inventae, exhibentur : his adjunguntur bufones, lacerti, serpentes, araneae, aliaque admiranda istius regionis animalcula'