IN MEMORY OF MARIANNE NORTH. 



Pteris aquilina, though the specific gravity of this fern must be 

 much the greater. The upper surface looks almost like embossed 

 leather. As shown by the scars of fallen scales, the stipe and 

 rachis when young are very thickly clothed. Mr. Mann says 

 this is so. 



IN MEMORY OF MARIANNE NORTH. 



On the 30th of August last tbis talented and remarkable woman 

 was released from suffering and passed away in her beautiful home 

 at Alderton, in Gloucestershire, whither she had retired to spend 

 in quiet the all too brief evening of an active and productive life. 

 Thousands of persons scattered all over the world, who know the 

 name and work of Marianne North, would doubtless fain learn 

 sometbing more of her to whom we are indebted for so much 

 enjoyment, in her gallery at Kew, of "paintings of plants and their 

 homes." It was there, while busily engaged on her work, that I 

 made the acquaintance of Miss North, and it is of her work and 

 workiug that I would specially write. I will first, however, give a 

 few particulars of her earlier life, taken from a sketch by one of her 

 friends, which appeared in the ' Queen ' some years ago. 



Marianne North was born at Hastings in 1830, and was the 

 daughter of Mr. Frederick North, of Rougham, in Norfolk, who was 

 for some time M.P. for Hastings. Her mother was the eldest 

 daughter of Sir John Majoribanks. Music and painting were her 

 natural gifts ; and she early developed the great skill in painting 

 flowers that has rendered her name famous. Frequent travel gave 

 her opportunities for exercising this talent, until it grew into an 

 all-absorbing passion. The years 1865 to 1867 she spent with her 

 father, chiefly in Syria and up the Nile, and a series of sketches 

 made during this period received high praise from competent 

 judges. Mr. North died in I860, and thereafter his daughter 

 devoted her life to painting. In 1869-70 she travelled aud painted 

 in Sicily ; but, so far as I remember, only one of the paintings 

 made in that country is in the collection at Kew. It is interesting, 

 as representing a group of papyrus growing in the River Ciane, the 

 only locality in which it is found wild on the European side of the 

 Mediterranean, where it may possibly have been introduced. In 

 1871 or 1872 Miss North visited North America and the West 

 Indies, and painted assiduously, spending more than two months 

 in solitude in a lonely house amongst the hills of Jamaica. Many 

 of the paintings made on this journey arc in the gallery at Kew, 

 and I believe they were the first submitted to botanical scrutiny ; 

 a small selection of them was sent to Sir Joseph Hooker at the 

 Kew Herbarium. Her next voyage was to Brazil, where she was 

 received with much distinction by the Emperor ; yet she lived the 

 greater part of the time in a deserted hut in the forest, and her 

 provisions were taken to her from a distance of eight miles by a 

 slave woman, who is commemorated in one of the paintings at Kew. 

 On ihc return journey Miss North called at Tenerilie. Then 



