Botanical Journal — El Tesoro de la Juventud 1913 Plants & Spices

On the bookshelves of homes across Latin America and Spain, from the 1910s through the 1960s and beyond, there stood a set of volumes that occupied a particular place in the imagination of the children who grew up with them. El Tesoro de la Juventud — The Treasure of Youth — was not merely an encyclopedia. It was a world in miniature: a place where a child could learn about the stars and the oceans, about history and geography, about the animals of the savanna and the plants of the forest, all rendered in illustrations of such color and clarity that the natural world seemed to open itself to the curious reader like a door.

The front cover reproduces the plate “Vegetales de Aprovechamiento Industrial” (Plants of Industrial Use) and the back cover “Las Sabrosas y Aromáticas Especias” (The Delicious and Aromatic Spices) from El Tesoro de la Juventud — the iconic Spanish-language encyclopedia first published in 1913 by W.M. Jackson Inc., adapted from Arthur Mee’s British Children’s Encyclopaedia and distributed across Latin America and Spain for decades. Each plant is identified by its common name in Spanish and its scientific name in Latin, each illustration detailed enough to allow identification in the field, in the tradition of popular botanical education that stretches back to the great herbals of the sixteenth century.

Product Details

• Format: Hardcover journal
• Pages: 150 lined pages (75 sheets) with perforations for easy removal
• Binding: Casewrap sewn binding — flexible and lay-flat
• Dimensions: 5.75 × 8 inches
• Weight: 100 g
• Cover: Matte laminated full-wrap print

Perfect For

• Foragers and herbalists documenting wild edible and medicinal plants
• Gardeners keeping plant identification and harvest notes
• Those who grew up with El Tesoro de la Juventud and carry its curiosity forward
• Botanical enthusiasts and natural history collectors
• Latin American culture lovers and admirers of mid-century popular science illustration
• Thoughtful gift for anyone who believes that knowing the names of things is a form of respect for them

To learn more about El Tesoro de la Juventud and the tradition of popular botanical education in Latin America, read The Encyclopedia That Taught a Continent to Know Its Plants on New Old Time.