The plants in the ceiling range from the common to the exotic, a seemingly random assortment which perhaps reflects the nature of the museum's own herbarium collection. But for Sandy, the choice was much more deliberate. For her, this beautiful ceiling is here for more than mere decoration. I think their plants to sort of show what made the British Empire great. It was built at the absolute height of its powers as a kind of colonial and top cheese nation. Things like cotton, tobacco, tea, all those plants which were grown in the colonies and then sold on and really did make the empire. I love the ceiling, but you get a sort of zero one reaction. People either say, "Oh, yes, it's amazing, it's absolutely incredible," or people say, "What ceiling?" And so you either know it's there and think it's marvellous, or you haven't, you know, crane your neck back like that and look. It's one of those things that I felt was one of the hidden secrets of the museum. Odd to think that a hidden secret is something that's sort of the entire top of the museum, but it is hidden in a sort of ways, "who looks up?"


屋顶上既有寻常植株，也有异国奇葩。这种看似随意的组合，却与博物馆卷帙浩繁的植物藏品暗合。但在珊迪看来，这背后却大有深意。对她来说，美丽的天花板，意义远大于装饰。我认为这些植物，隐射出大英帝国之伟大。它建筑于帝国权力的巅峰，那时英国是个强大的殖民国家，像棉花，烟草，茶叶。这些生长于殖民地的植物，通过贸易来到帝国，为帝国崛起推波助澜。我爱极了这个屋顶，不过人们的反应是两种极端。他们要么说 "哇"，"这个太不可思议了，它非常震撼"。要么问，什么屋顶。所以，他们或是知道在那，觉得壮丽非凡，或是从未注意到，从未抬起头，看看天花板。我觉得，这是博物馆隐藏秘密之一，想想也挺奇怪，居然藏在整个博物馆的屋顶上，但这藏得很好，谁知道要抬头呢。