172 Botanical Periodicals 



splendid work, wliich did at once, and in the beginning, almost as 

 much as the increased facilities of art and the experience of nearly 

 forty years have enabled us to realise at the present time. This 

 beautiful work appeared in 1 803, and possesses few of the faults 

 of execution common to the works of that period. It attempted 

 an union of elegance and beauty of illustration, combined with 

 scientific utility, never before attained ; and which, in many 

 points, has never yet been excelled. The plates were engraved 

 by good artists ; and the shading not confined to liiics, but, in 

 the execution of the cones and other parts, where softness and 

 delicacy of effect were required, dotting in the chalk style was 

 resorted to, which rendered the effect, when coloured, much 

 softer and more even than could ever be attained by lining. (I 

 am, of course, now speaking exclusively of plates for botanical 

 illustration, and more particularly of such as are intended for 

 colouring.) The colouring of these plates is in a style of careful 

 excellence not to be surpassed, however it may have been out- 

 done, in some works of the present day, in brilliancy and effect. 



A few years subsequent to Lambert's Pi?ius, appeared Sib- 

 thorp's Flora G)'CEca, a much more voluminous work, but not 

 equal to the Pinus in the finish of its illustrations. In the 

 delicate petals of flowers, where softness and delicacy were even 

 more required than in the cones of the pines, in the work I have 

 been before describing, no attempt was made to take advantage 

 of an admixture of the dotting, or chalk style,, to attain the de- 

 sired effect; but the expression of shade was, on the contrary, 

 confined to a few lines, which, though put in with a good deal 

 of character and artistical feeling, are rather coarse; and some 

 of the most beautiful effects of many a delicate flower are con- 

 sequently lost. Still, this must be considered a very handsome 

 work, even when viewed merely on the score of its illustra- 

 tions, and divested of its great interest in a scientific point of 

 view. It is, in fact, one of the steps towards that excellence, 

 which we have now the means of attaining, but which we have 

 not yet attained. 



In 1836, Wallich's Plantce Rariores Asiatics, emulating the 

 splendid works then in progress on the Continent, formed a 

 new era in the art of pictorial illustration of works of this class. 

 Tiie plates, by the aid of the beautiful art of lithography (at 

 length in general use for the illustration of scientific works), 

 made a greater approacli towards many points of excellence 

 than had hitherto been attained. The cold effect of aquatinta 

 shades, which had spoiled many former works, was abolished ; 

 and the harshness of line-shading on copper or steel was super- 

 seded by the soft chalky shades of lithography. The plates 

 thus assumed more of those characterestics of works of art, 

 which should always be the ambition of works of such expense: 



