Common Polypody

The plant that prints its own portrait. Plate II of the Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland: left, P. vulgare serratum with aligned sori; right, P. vulgare semilacerum arching, root included. The printed caption below — NATURE PRINTING, Bradbury & Evans — signs the process: the frond pressed into soft lead, then electrotyped, became its own printing plate, in two colours.

Plate from the virtual exhibition Wondrous Flora (Trace Museum, 1705-1887).