WALTER HOOD FITCH. 101 



Kew in 1841, Fitch went with him, and there spent the remainder 

 of his life : the two were associated in many undertakings. The 

 list of publications which Fitch illustrated during the succeeding 

 forty years would be a long one— too long, indeed, for insertion 

 here ; and it is only possible to glance at a few of them. 



Fitch was a lithographer as well as an artist, and his published 

 plates therefore have not, as is sometimes the case, failed to repre- 

 sent the meaning of the draughtsman. Among his earlier work 

 may be named the plates of the Genera Filicum (1812) taken from 

 Francis Bauer's beautiful drawings ; of these Sir William says in 

 the preface : " [they] have been all executed under my own eye, in 

 zincography, by a young artist, Walter Fitch, with a delicacy and 

 accuracy which I trust will not discredit the figures from which 

 they were taken." Of his larger work, good examples may be 

 found in Sir William Hooker's Victoria regia (18511 and Dr. (now 

 Sir) J. D. Hooker's Illustrations of Himalat/an Plants (1855) ; in the 

 preface to the latter, Sir Joseph speaks of the " unrivalled skill in 

 seizing the natural characters of plants" of this "incomparable 

 botanical artist," thus showing the very high estimate which had 

 been formed of Fitch's work. His most recent folio plates are thos 



to Mr. Elwes's Mowujraph of JJIium (1880), on the title-page of 

 which Fitch's name stands as illustrator. The New Zealand, 

 Antarctic, and Tasmaiiian Floras of Sir Joseph Hooker, the Trans- 

 actions and Journal of the Linneau Society (the former including 

 such important works as Welwitsch's Sertiun Awjoleuse, the Botany 

 of the Speke and Grant Expedition, Bentham's monographs of 

 Mimosa and Cassia, and Triana's Melastomacea— the plates of which 

 Fitch once told us had given him more trouble than anything he 

 had ever undertaken), the Botany of the Biologia Centralis Americana, 

 the Botany of the ■ Herald; and Flora Vitiensis— these are only some 

 of the more important of the works illustrated by Fitch. 



Many gardening and horticultural journals were from time to 

 time illustrated by Fitch, and examples of his work will be found 

 in our own earlier volumes. He prepared the very charming figures 

 for the illustrated edition of Bentham's Handbook, and the IUu$- 

 trations of the Natural Orders issued by the Science and Art 

 Department in 1874. From time to time he contributed large 

 groups of roses, lilies, and the like to the Gardeners 7 Chronicle, as 

 well as woodcuts of British plants in their natural habitats— the 

 least satisfactory examples of his work. In the Chronicle, too, he 

 published in 1869 an admirable series of lessons on " Botanical 

 Drawing" — so far as we know, his only contribution to literature. 

 It has long been a matter of wonder to us that these lessons 

 have never been reprinted, and we mention the fact in the hope 

 that they may yet be brought out in an accessible form. 



The long connection of Fitch with two of the works already men- 

 tioned—the Botanical Magazine and the Icones Plantarum— came to 

 an end in 1877. In 1869, Sir Joseph Hooker had dedicated a volume 

 of the former to him, as " the accomplished artist and lithographer 

 of upwards of 2500 plates already published of the Botanical 

 Magazine," and it seemed likely that the number would be 



