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singularly meagre and incomplete, and her descriptions show no 

 intimate knowledge of the plants described. She was, however, a 

 true plant-lover, and by her pleasant style succeeded in interesting 

 her readers in the objects she described. Her name does not 

 appear in the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers. 



Many of Miss Pratt's books were published by the S. P. C. K. 

 and R. T. S., and as these religious bodies are notorious offenders 

 in the matter of omitting dates from title-pages it is not easy to 

 say exactly when they appeared. Two very pleasant little volumes 

 — Wild Flowers of the Year and Garden flowers of the Year— were 

 issued by the latter Society about 1846. Being anonymous, they 

 do not appear under "Pratt (Anne)" in the British Museum 

 Catalogue, where, however, — such are the inscrutable ways of 

 cataloguers ! — one is to be found under " Flowers," the other under 

 " Garden." 



Perhaps her most popular work, especially among children, is 

 Wild Flowers, issued in two fat little square volumes in 1852 by 

 the S.P.C.K., and frequently reprinted. A boldly-drawn and 

 somewhat coarsely coloured figure, with two pages of popular but 

 not inaccurate letterpress, were^devoted to each species selected : 

 and the book has been a pleasant companion on many a summer 

 holiday. The book was also issued in sheets for hanging up in 

 schoolrooms and like places, and certainly fulfilled a useful purpose. 

 Her more ambitious work, The Flowering Plants of Great Britain. 

 of which the grasses and sedges and ferns and fern allies formed 

 two separate volumes, appeared in 1855 ; like Wild Flowers it has 

 been often reissued — once in shilling parts — but no attempt was 

 ever made to bring it up to date, although some twelve years since 

 negotiations were opened with a view to this being done. Botanically 

 it is a weak book, but as a popular account of our wild plants it is 

 still the best we have, and the coloured illustrations, in which 

 allied plants are grouped together, are not unpleasing, although not 

 likely to be of use to the critical botanist, having been produced in 

 the days before roses and brambles had strewn his path with 

 thorns. The drawings both in this and the earlier work were, I 

 believe, prepared by Miss Pratt ; those in Wild Flowers show far 

 greater originality, the Flowering Plants being manifestly indebted 

 to English Botany in many instances. 



On leaving Chatham, Miss Pratt resided for a time at 

 Brixton, and in 1849 went to live at Dover, where she wrote the 

 Flowering Plants, already referred to. On ihe 4th Dec. 1866, she 

 was married to Mr. John Pearless, of East Grinstead, where she 

 resided for two and a half years. After this she and her 

 husband changed their place of abode frequently. I made her 

 personal acquaintance about fourteen or fifteen years since, at 

 Brighton, where she and her husband were then staying. She was 

 a bright intelligent little woman, full of interest in natural history 

 subjects, a certain kindness and simplicity of manner, coupled with 

 much gentleness, reminding me of "Miss Mattie," in Granford. 

 She was evidently much attached to her husband, whose deafness 

 rendered him a somewhat trying companion. After this they went 



