MKS. MOKIAirn S 'M'LIUDAKIUM 53 



justified. In some cases the compilers have not actually seen the 

 book which, in still more, constitutes the sole claim of the author to 

 insertion, no biographical information regarding him (or her) having 

 been procurable. In cases where such a book has been seen, it has 

 sometimes been possible to gather from the inspection facts regarding 

 its production which cannot well be indicated in the Index and are 

 indeed in themselves of little importance, yet which it may be well to 

 place on record in an accessible form. 



An instance of the kind indicated will be found in the book named 

 at the head of this note. Of the author, Mrs. Henrietta Maria 

 Moriarty, we know nothing beyond what may be gathered from the 

 Viridarium except that in 1812 she published in London " Crim. Con. : 

 a Novel founded on Facts," the title is hardly what would have 

 been expected from an author who seems to have been engaged in 

 educational work. One of the " subordinate objects " of the Viri- 

 dariu7nwsis its "use in public boarding-schools" where "those who have 

 the instruction, or, I might say, the formation, and even the fashioning 

 of young minds most at heart, often find it difficult to obtain repre- 

 sentations in this most pleasing branch of natural liistory ; on the one 

 hand sufficiently accurate and on the other, entirely free from those 

 ingenious speculations and allusions which, however suitable to the 

 physiologist, are dangerous to the young and ignorant ; for this reason 

 I have taken as little notice as possible of the system of the immortal 

 Linneus, and of all the illustrations and comments on it ; nay, I have 

 not once named the fanciful Dr. Darwin, and, having no desire to 

 extenuate the merit of any writer, or to supercede (sic) the use of his 

 labour, it will be pleasure and satisfaction enough for me if my own 

 perforjuance shall prove such an one as the rising generation can 

 consult with safety and advantage." 



The full title of the book — which was " printed for the author, and 

 sold by William Earle. no. 47, Albemarle- Street, Piccadilly" — runs : 

 '* Viridarium : Coloured Plates of Greenhouse Plants, with the Linnean 

 Names, and with Concise Rules for their Culture." It is dedicated 

 (from Boley Hill, Rochester, Jan. 1805) to the Dowager Lady de 

 Clifford as a " testimony of high respect and of gratitude for kindness 

 to me and my children " ; there is a long list of subscribers, headed by 

 " His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, 2 copies," the constitution 

 of which confirms the view that Mrs. Moriart}^ had been a governess 

 in families of position. A second edition with a different title— Fifft/ 

 Plates of Greenhouse Plants — was published in 1807, by J. W. 

 Little, London. 



Although Mrs. Moriarty speaks in her dedication of "the time 

 spent in executing this Avork " and, in the preface, of having 

 "delineated" the plants, the plates have in almost every case been 

 adapted with slight alteration and with no sort of acknowledgement 

 from Curtis''s Botanical Magazine. I have not checked each one, 

 but have compared a sufficient number to warrant this conclusion ; 

 the correlation of t. 11 (Gereus flagelliformis), t. 14 {Gonvolimhis 

 alth(eoides), and t. 26 {Hibiscus s^jeciosus) with tt. 17, 359, and 360 

 of Bot. Mag. will exemplify this statement. The only exception (and 

 the only one in which the author refers to " the plant from which 



