Hand-colored mezzotint of five varieties of the Lycium family depicting flowers, thorns and fruit. This is a fine example of the mezzotint process, which was one of the earliest methods of printing color. The process was very expensive and still required hand finishing with water-color to bring out the detail. Johann Weinman was a rich pharmacist and his work was one of the large botanical illustration projects of the 18th century, comprising four volumes and 1,026 plates identifying over 4,000 plants.