Due to the variable quality of work done by some artists, some drawings have proved difficult to identify. Nonetheless, botanists have identified some of these problematic drawings, one a drawing of a male
Raffles's malkoha in which the breast is too yellow. Others which have yet to be identified include a drawing of a climber similar to
Smilax. Plate 29 of the collection inscription reads
Soogow, probably a misspelling of "
saga". However, the drawing shows little resemblance to the latter. Historians suggest that many of the backdrops of the drawings were copied from drawing manuals. One such example is a drawing of the
greater mousedeer, the background of which shows a
leafless climber attached to a
rock. Some scholars query this, as mousedeer do not live in such rocky habitats. This suggests that either the artists did not visit the habitat of the subject, or, if they did, that they were not particularly observant. In the book
Natural History Drawings: The Complete William Farquhar Collection, Malay Peninsula 1803–1818, an article by Kwa Chong Guan suggests that there were two artists, one who usually framed his works as seen in the illustration of the durian and one who did the opposite of the latter. Usually, the artist who drew a frame around his work depicted fungi-like shaped rocks while the other portrayed the rocks in their own natural form. Also, the artist who drew frames usually had drawings of trees with their
roots spread out, while the other showed roots in a clench-like manner. ==Books==