I love stuff like this. The article mentions Werner’s Nomenclature of Colour which is a marvel. There is a wonderful Thames and Hudson book, Nature’s Palette, which includes Werner’s Nomenclature and expands on it by discussing how the nomenclature was produced, has illustrations of the reference plants and animals Werner used, etc.
It makes for a great gift for an aspiring artist interested in natural themes, I think. Particularly when paired with Taschen’s The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel which is a similarly mesmerising historical reference: