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ble to present true imitations of plants, by mere coloured copper- 

 plates — that is to say, by impressions from engraved copper, in print- 

 ing which, one, two, three, or even more colours, are put on the cop. 

 per Nothing comes near to nature, and consequently nothing is faith- 

 ful, but colours laid on the coloured impressions, by the pencil, under 

 the direction of persons well acquainted with the real hues of plants. 

 To verify this assertion, it may be mentioned, that the superbly exe- 

 cuted plates of Michaux's forest trees, are all coloured by hand, a fact 

 not generally known, butone of which any person may satisfy himself 

 by rapidly sponging with clean water any one of those plates. All 

 the colouring can be washed away, and the engraving will be found 

 printed in green, brown, red, and yellow — sometimes in only one, 

 occasionally in two, or all of these colours. And it is to imitate this 

 accurate and expressive style that the author has made the at- 

 tempts alluded to. For example, the plate of the cranberry and that 

 of the scull-cap in Nos. VI. and VII. of this Flora, are highly finish- 

 ed specimens of this expressive species of engraving; but still more 

 highly wrought examples will be found in No. VIII., which will be 

 published on the first of March. In that No. the plates of dome 

 dodecandra and solanum carolinense, will not be found to suffer 

 from rigid comparison with the exquisite plates of Michaux's Fo- 

 rest Trees — and they are executed, both by dotted engraving and 

 coloured by hand, precisely in the same manner as the plates 

 of that magnificent work. As far as the engraving is concerned, 

 the author feels himself capable of giving an impartial opinion ; 



