THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE’S TINY TAXONOMY OF PLANTS, VOLUME IV: FLOWERS
by Traci Chee
2017
seed paper, waxed linen thread
by Traci Chee
2017
seed paper, waxed linen thread
Among humans, it is not known when the enterprising citizens of the Invisible Empire began their work on the Tiny Taxonomy—indeed, its origins are disputed even among renowned historians of the Empire—but in the millennia since its first recorded appearance, the Invisible Empire’s Tiny Taxonomy has become an authoritative and invaluable resource on the categorization of the natural world. Encompassing over 102 volumes, the Taxonomy classifies the multitudinous plants, shells, egg-laying mammals, mushrooms that may be used to poison a man, moths, &c. in a system so simple and inspired that no one (human or invisible) has yet been able to match it in accuracy, comprehensiveness, or elegance.
The fourth volume of the Tiny Taxonomy of Plants, “Flowers,” stands only 1-inch high (an appropriately oversize volume for the average citizen of the Empire) with perforated paper pages embedded with seeds. When planted, each page sprouts into seven varieties of wildflower.
Not all volumes of the Tiny Taxonomy are made of paper, however. The Tiny Taxonomy of Rocks and Minerals, Volume VII: Crystals, for example, is carved onto wafer-thin tablets of variegated gemstone, while one volume of the Tiny Taxonomy of Insects has covers made from the scintillating elytra of various species of beetle.
Copies of the Tiny Taxonomy are easily accessible through the Invisible Empire’s vast libraries, which are often nestled inside hollowed-out trees and the abandoned burrows of wild rabbits. Plant enthusiasts might spend hours poring over the Taxonomy’s tomes, curled up in reading galleries inside the trunks of towering redwoods or ancient gnarled oaks, while eager botany students might make miniature notes by the light of an obliging glow worm or bioluminescent fungi.
For those humans who would otherwise never have the opportunity to study the arcane classification systems of the Invisible Empire, the full text of The Invisible Empire’s Tiny Taxonomy of Plants, Volume IV: Flowers is reproduced, with the consent and good will of the Invisible Empire’s Most Illustrious Academy of Sciences, here:
THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE’S TINY TAXONOMY OF PLANTS
VOLUME IV
FLOWERS
1) houses of spirits and sprites
2) resplendent
3) poisonous
4) fuzzy catkins
5) ineffable
6) whose fragrance lures the dead from their graves at night
7) that fall from maidens’ mouths
8) lining the paths of lovers who will never meet again
9) many
10) ground with the internal organs of jaguars as a potion against fear
11) at the center of the moon
12) listed in books
13) having recently emerged from the coffee-colored loam
14) that bloom only once every three thousand years
THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE’S TINY TAXONOMY OF PLANTS, VOLUME IV: FLOWERS is inspired both by the ancient and/or fictitious “Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge,” cited by Jorge Luis Borges in his essay, “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins,” and by the pin-sized books of Evan Lorenzen.
The fourth volume of the Tiny Taxonomy of Plants, “Flowers,” stands only 1-inch high (an appropriately oversize volume for the average citizen of the Empire) with perforated paper pages embedded with seeds. When planted, each page sprouts into seven varieties of wildflower.
Not all volumes of the Tiny Taxonomy are made of paper, however. The Tiny Taxonomy of Rocks and Minerals, Volume VII: Crystals, for example, is carved onto wafer-thin tablets of variegated gemstone, while one volume of the Tiny Taxonomy of Insects has covers made from the scintillating elytra of various species of beetle.
Copies of the Tiny Taxonomy are easily accessible through the Invisible Empire’s vast libraries, which are often nestled inside hollowed-out trees and the abandoned burrows of wild rabbits. Plant enthusiasts might spend hours poring over the Taxonomy’s tomes, curled up in reading galleries inside the trunks of towering redwoods or ancient gnarled oaks, while eager botany students might make miniature notes by the light of an obliging glow worm or bioluminescent fungi.
For those humans who would otherwise never have the opportunity to study the arcane classification systems of the Invisible Empire, the full text of The Invisible Empire’s Tiny Taxonomy of Plants, Volume IV: Flowers is reproduced, with the consent and good will of the Invisible Empire’s Most Illustrious Academy of Sciences, here:
THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE’S TINY TAXONOMY OF PLANTS
VOLUME IV
FLOWERS
1) houses of spirits and sprites
2) resplendent
3) poisonous
4) fuzzy catkins
5) ineffable
6) whose fragrance lures the dead from their graves at night
7) that fall from maidens’ mouths
8) lining the paths of lovers who will never meet again
9) many
10) ground with the internal organs of jaguars as a potion against fear
11) at the center of the moon
12) listed in books
13) having recently emerged from the coffee-colored loam
14) that bloom only once every three thousand years
THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE’S TINY TAXONOMY OF PLANTS, VOLUME IV: FLOWERS is inspired both by the ancient and/or fictitious “Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge,” cited by Jorge Luis Borges in his essay, “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins,” and by the pin-sized books of Evan Lorenzen.
