jidditional Notes. 6 1 7 



Scotland, who, In 1739, published a splendid work under the 

 following title — y-/ curious Herbal, containing five hundred 

 Cuts of the most iisejul Plants which arc 7iow used in the 

 Practice of Physic^ engraved on Folio Copperplates, after 

 Drawings taken from the Life. 2 vols, folio. 'I'his inge- 

 nious lady, after she had completed the drawings, engraved 

 them on copper, and coloured the prints with her own hands. 

 It ought to be mentif)ncd, to the honour of Mrs. Black- 

 Well, that she undei took and went through this ingenious 

 labour for the purpose of procuring her husband's liberation 

 from prison, where he was contined for debt, and from 

 which she extricated him in two years. — Pulteny*>5 

 Sketches. 



" Mrs.DELANEY (an English lady) has finished nine hun- 

 dred and seventy accurate and elegant representations of dif- 

 ferent vegetables, with the parts of their flowers, fructifica- 

 tion, &c. according with the classification of Linn.^us, in 

 what she teims paper-mosaic. She began this work at the 

 age of 74, when her sight would no longer serve her to paint, 

 in which she much excelled. Between tliG age of 74 and 

 82, at which time her eyes quite failed her, she executed the 

 curious Hortus Siccus above-mentioned, which, I suppose, 

 contains a greater number of plants than were ever before 

 drawn from the life by any one person. Her method con- 

 sisted in placing the leaves of each plant, with the petals, and 

 all the other pans of the flowers, on coloured paper, and 

 cutting them with scissars accurately to the natural size and 

 form, and then pasting them on a dark ground ; the eftect of 

 which is wonderful, and their accuiacy less liable to fallacy 

 than drawings. She is at this time (1788) in her 89th year, 

 with all the powers of a fine understanding still unimpaired. 

 I am informed that another very ingenious lady, Mrs. North, 

 is constructing a similar Hortus Siccus, or paper-garden, 

 which she executes on a ground of vellum, with such ele- 

 gant taste and scientific accuracy, that it cannot fail to be- 

 come a work of inestimable value." — Botanic Garden^ Part ii. 

 Canto ii. p. 51. New-York edit. 



Botanic Gardens, p. 144. 



The late royal government of France, for the promotion 

 of botanical science, was in the habit of establishing Botani- 



