What does my portrait of flowers No. 34 Display'd Flower Garden, Garden of the moft beau. What is moft beau?

Question

I think its something in the French language. Would like to know the meaning of it. Translation please.

Answer 1

I think theres something missing, namely the letters "tiful".(most beautiful).In older handwriting, an s looks like a modern f.
There is no word "moft" in french.
Look at these sites for an example of how an s can be confused with an f :
http://amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/oldhand.html
http://www.genealogia.fi/faq/faq031ee.htm

Answer 2

Pretty weird. I think that this is the product of one of those scanners reading text, some software messes up a lot of the words. On the source box I am adding the link with the document all messed up, you can see there what I mean. All the "s" seem to have been replaced with "f" ( I see the word "Chelfea" for "Chelsea").

See this text, I don't know how it will show on on Yahoo, but on the original, "beau" is on one line and "tiful" on the next:

"The Oxalis verficolor is confidered as one of the moft beau
tiful of the many fpecies cultivated in gardens"

So, I think your text means "most beau...tiful" :)

Cheers