Botanical model of a rye spikelet (secale cereale) by Robert Brendel, ca. 1

Botanical model of a rye spikelet (secale cereale) by Robert Brendel.
Papier-mâché, iron, wood.
Germany.
Before 1900.
h. 35,8 in.

Papier-mâché botanical model of a rye (secale cereale) spikelet, painted and handmade in Robert Brendel's workshops at the end of the 19th century. Robert Brendel's botanical models were meant as teaching tools to botany students at German faculties in the late 19th and early 20th century.

As in nature, this secale model comes with two long removable awns, the long filaments that make wheat or rye ears so recognisable in the meads. The entire Brendel model of secale with its two awns, reaches a height of almost 3 feet.

The secale cereale didactic model is listed in the ‘Preisliste über Botanische Modelle... von R. Brendel' of 1900, at no. 12a, in the 2nd section of the catalogue dedicated to “Angebaute, landwirtschaftlich wichtige Pflanzen”, i.e. Cultivated plants important to agriculture.

Sources

Preisliste über Botanische Modelle gefertigt und herausgegeben von R. Brendel, Berlin, 1900.