The colonial era of Bengal witnessed a drastic shift in painting styles . The illustration is a part of the collections of local amateur botanist Richard Cresswell(181 5-1852) . It is one among the numerous paintings, approximately eighty-six in number . It approximately dates back to the early 1800s Many of the plants depicted in these illustrations were part of the Ayurvedic practice. Therefore, it is prominent as part of a botanical collection . The plant depicted in the above illustration by the artist Bhawani Das depicts a 'kadam' tree . It is a fast growing tree, used for it's cheap and light wood . The wood extracted from kadam trees were primarily used for making packing cases, tea chests and disposable chopsticks . More than a tree,a kadam tree rather represents a cultural marker of Bengal, since the tree is primarilv and locallv found in Bengal . The leaves of the kadam tree are used for medicinal benefits oftentimes as well. Between the late eighteenth and the mid nineteenth century , the vicious yet productive roots of the British East India Company had extended it's roots everywhere. The colour scheme of the painting is a light tone, with the tree depicted against a monochromatic background. The aftermath of colonial spread can be noticed in the influence of Western paintings in the above illustration .

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