xi MEMOIRS OF THE 
burthening science with another exactly the same except 
the title; which Mr. Gawler and Mr. Edwards to distinguish 
it from “ Magazine” called “ Register,” and charged it a 
higher price. The principal merit of the Botanical 
Register, and for which it was in the beginning patronized, 
has many years ceased to exist; and Mr. Edwards left an 
opposition to the Magazine without the means of con- 
tinuing its merits. Prior to Mr. Edwards being able to 
draw for the Flora and Botanical Magazine, Mr. Curtis was 
in the habit of employing, not only as a colourer, but 
afterwards as a draftsman and engraver, the late Mr. 
James Sowerby, whose name appears on many of the 
plates in each work. This artist, in conjunction with 
Doctor (now Sir James Edward) Smith, brought out the 
octavo work called English Botany, in opposition to Mr. 
Curtis’s Flora Londimensis. This unexpected opposition, 
from supposed friends, cost Mr. Curtis much uneasiness. 
But the two works, when compared together, for execution 
and price, will, as Dr. Thornton observes, “ leave the first 
work of Mr. Curtis to shine with undiminished splendour.” 
Although this may seem a long digression from our 
object in this memoir, it seemed of sufficient importance to 
explain the trouble and difficulties Mr. Curtis had to con- 
tend with in his early career, to produce those parents of 
most of our esteemed modern coloured works on the same 
subjects ; and as reasons for the slow progress they made, 
particularly the Flora Londinensis. The ground was new 
and unexplored ; and the patrons, although ardent, were too 
few to support a work of its price, although published so 
low. Had Mr. Curtis increased the price of the work at its 
commencement, it would most likely have paid him very 
well, as few short of the same number would have been sold; 
whereas it was published so near its actual cost, as, with the 
outlay upon the stock remaining on hand, involved the au- 
thor in difficulties, which his best friends were sorry to see. 
