Teaching: the old way.

This is, I think, a model of a magnified section through the stem of fennel Foeniculum calillaceum, now known as F. vulgare.

The model is made of paper mâché and is enclosed in a glass case covered in the grot of ages. It was used for teaching, in the Botany Department of Aberdeen University, in the late1800s.

The model was made by the firm of Robert Brendel (c. 1821–1898) and his son Reinhold Brendel (c. 1861–1927) who were botanical model-makers working first in Breslau and then in Grunewald Berlin.They produced beautiful and accurate models of enlarged flowers and other plant parts made of papier mâché, but with other materials added to give detail and texture: wood, cotton, rattan, pulp cane, glass beads, feathers and gelatine. Reinhold was decorated with the Prussian silver state medal in appreciation of his business activities.

National Museums Liverpool also have a large collection of Brendel models which can be seen online.