Acacia sphaerocephala Cham. & Schltdl. (Bullhorn Acacia)

This is not a cartoon or caricature — it is a herbarium specimen sheet from the Natural History Museum, London, Department of Botany. A dried branch of Acacia sphaerocephala, the bullhorn acacia, collected at Vera Cruz in 1731 by the botanist William Houston, is mounted on aged paper with handwritten annotations identifying it as Acacia spinosa cornigera, floribus globosis. The correct context is the 18th-century natural history collecting expedition, Linnaean taxonomy, and the botanical survey of Mesoamerica.