Male Papaya Tree
The forests of India, some of the richest resources of the British colonies, helped to increase interest in the study of natural history and scientific collecting, including among Indian artists working for British patrons. This work comes from the album of Major James Nathanial Rind (d. 1814), a colonial officer known to have had a keen interest in flora and fauna. Commissioned into the Bengal Marines in 1778, Rind later transferred to the 18th Regiment of the Bengal Native Infantry. Between 1785 and 1789, he was based at Calcutta and was among the officers involved in a survey of India. This botanical study of a papaya tree shows the male flowers, whose pollen can fertilize nearby female flowers and yield fruit.
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