Alopecurus geniculatus L.

This is not a political cartoon or caricature, but a botanical specimen sheet from the British Museum's herbarium collection. The pressed plant shows the distinctive features of marsh foxtail (Alopecurus geniculatus), with characteristic spike-like flower heads and jointed stems. Collected from Aichelme Bark, Cadney, in Lincolnshire, the specimen represents the museum's documentary record-keeping practices of the Victorian era. While seemingly removed from the tradition of satirical printmaking that birthed the comic strip, herbarium sheets share the same impulse toward detailed observation, visual classification, and mass reproduction that would eventually characterize illustrated journalism and sequential art.