Hounds Tongue Plant Specimen from 1879 Herbarium sculptural handle I believe a mask like

I believe a mask like this one would have been used in initiation rituals

3 3/4" t x 2 5/8" w

but I've since come to understand that "Whence Came You

as they put an awfully lot of work into the carving of the cover

Hounds Tongue Plant Specimen from 1879 Herbarium sculptural handle I believe a mask likeI have a fantasy that one day at a flea market I'll uncover a beautiful antique herbarium that's been sitting in the bottom of a box for 150 years or so filled with page upon page of perfectly documented pressed and dried plant specimens. Alas, this has yet to happen, but I did recently find this and one other (listed separately) herbarium pages, I'd guess removed from a larger volume. This one is Hounds Tongue, a robust plant, as one can see (!),