Wikipedia:Picture of the day/September 2010

The

Plantain Walk by William Berryman, an English artist who was active in Jamaica during the period 1808–16. He produced over three hundred pencil sketches and watercolors of the Jamaican landscape and the daily lives of the island's people, with which he intended to create a series of engravings, but he died before he could begin the project. Much of his unpublished work remained neglected for years, until an album was discovered and acquired by the U.S. Library of Congress.

Restoration: Lise Broer

A c. 1805

Artist: Edward Walsh; Restoration: Adam Cuerden

The cryptic mantis (Sibylla pretiosa) is a mantid native to southern Africa. Its common name comes from its ability to grow asymmetrically to match the vegetation of its environment. They have unusual leaf-like projections on the joint of their four walking legs and leaf-like wings, generally the only green portion of the insect's otherwise brown and mottled exoskeleton. Adult females grow to 5–6 cm (2.0–2.4 in) in length while the males are generally about 1 cm smaller.

Photo: Luc Viatour

Artist: Kobayashi Kiyochika; Restoration: Jake Wartenberg

A Tanzanian boy transporting fodder on a bicycle. "Fodder" refers particularly to food given to domesticated livestock, rather than that which the animals forage for themselves.

Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

The

Photo:

A house tipped over as a result of the

A man engaged in

Photo: Fir0002

The

Photo: Fir0002

Damage caused by American Airlines Flight 77 to the Pentagon as a result of the September 11 attacks. The flight was one of four commercial airliners hijacked that day, and the perpetrators crashed it into the building, causing 189 deaths, including all 64 on board the plane. The damaged sections were rebuilt in 2002.

Photo: Tech. Sgt. Cedric H. Rudisill, USAF

A disc of

Photo: Alchemist-hp

A female

A c. 1650 map showing the Island of California, a long-held European misconception, dating from the 16th century, that California was not part of mainland North America but rather a large island separated from the continent by a strait now known instead as the Gulf of California. The belief persisted until the expeditions of Juan Bautista de Anza in 1774–76.

Map: Johannes Vingboons; Restoration: Lise Broer

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Roulettes aerobatics squadron at the 2008 Australian Grand Prix. The squad was formed in 1970 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the RAAF and perform about 150 flying displays a year throughout Australia and neighboring countries.

Photo: Fir0002

The flowers of an Echeveria 'Blue Curl' cultivar. The genus comprises a large number of succulent plants and is named after the Mexican botanical artist Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy. Many of the species produce numerous offsets, and are commonly known as 'Hen and chicks', a term which can also refer to other genera such as Sempervivum. Many Echeveria species are popular as garden plants.

Photo:

An

The Nyrstar zinc works at Lutana, Tasmania, is the island's largest exporter, generating 2.5% of the state's GDP. It produces over 250,000 tons of zinc per year. The town, now a suburb of Hobart, was originally built by Electrolytic Zinc as homes for employees of the smelter.

Photo:

A female

A

Photo: David Iliff

An 1839

Lithograph: Louis Haghe; Artist: David Roberts; Restoration: Lise Broer

A Eusthenia species of stonefly. The order contains almost 3,500 known species, including the only known insects that are exclusively aquatic from birth to death. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the most primitive groups of Neoptera and are found worldwide, with the exception of Antarctica.

Photo:

An early design for

A

The

A colored sketch of a portion of the

A bismuth crystal covered with an iridescent oxide surface. Bismuth is a post-transition metal with the atomic number 83. It is generally considered to be the last naturally occurring stable, non-radioactive element on the periodic table, although it is actually slightly radioactive. Bismuth compounds are used in cosmetics, medicines, and in medical procedures. As the toxicity of lead has become more apparent in recent years, alloy uses for bismuth metal as a replacement for lead have become an increasing part of bismuth's commercial importance.

Photo: Alchemist-hp

An engraving by Gustave Doré of a scene from Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age in the Spanish literary canon. The scene illustrated here occurs early in the novel, when Alonso Quixano (Quixote's real name) has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes their every word to be true, despite the fact that many of the events in them are clearly impossible. Don Quixote was published in two separate volumes, ten years apart. It is considered a founding work of modern Western literature, and it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published.

Restoration: Adam Cuerden

Photo: Unknown; Restoration: Michel Vuijlsteke