"Gramma" wrote in
:


I'm sorry if I haven't quite grasped the above but you seem to be
saying that an illustrator could , or should be able to, work
principally from the description of a plant in botanical terms.
Or do you mean in conjunction with a live specimen?


Definitely use the live specimen, but remember that the Botanist who
described the plant is familiar with its relatives, and described it in
such a way that some one else would be able to tell them apart using
the description. Monographs (publications dedicated to a single group
of plants, such as a genus or subgenus) also tend to include that
information.

Sean