The Herbarium holds real flowers that someone picked, pressed, and arranged by hand fifty years ago — purple statice, a spray of fern, one broad tan leaf at the center — then set them behind glass in a double oval mat with an antiqued gold frame and signed the corner in a small ink monogram. Pressing flora goes back to the Victorians; this one's from the seventies wave that put botanical pieces on every good gallery wall.
She's small enough to tuck into a stack, a shelf, or the empty spot on the wall that's been waiting for something quiet.
