60 
IN MEMORIAM 
I met Miss Page first in January 1915 when she was spending a few weeks 
in the Cape Peninsula, and was at once struck with the beauty of the flower- 
paintings she showed me. She had not, up to this time, done any botanical 
drawing; but with her usual enterprising spirit she was quite prepared to 
try and do her best, and we arranged to begin work together in October. 
For three months she lived with me, learning “to paint from the botanical 
point of view.” The artist in her must often have been sorely tried; but 
nothing daunted her and she persevered, becoming more and more engrossed 
in the subject as she learnt to discern more of the minute differences between 
the various species. Her enthusiasm was unbounded. There were hunts for 
some of the rarer species (and she was wonderfully successful in running them 
to earth) and we had glorious expeditions — several of them to the top of 
Table Mountain. One excursion stands out vividly in my memory, namely, 
the one to Cape Point in November 1915. We walked from Miller’s Point to 
Buffel’ s Bay and the next day on to Cape Point, sleeping again at Buffel’s 
Bay before returning to Simonstown. How often she paused at an irresistible 
view, whipped out her paint-box, and in a few minutes had taken her record, 
hurrying on in joyous excitement to catch up with the other members of the 
party. I can see her now, looking back over the ten years that have passed, 
in the doorway of our bed-room at sunrise, drawing a rare flower which she 
feared would not last till the return home — so anxious was she to get it done. 
This was the beginning of her connection with the Bolus Herbarium which 
lasted till her death. Readers of these pages are familiar with the excellent 
drawings that have appeared in them, and with the illustrations in the 
Journal of the Botanical Society, as well as in our joint work Elementary Lessons 
in Systematic Botany. But beyond the few plates that have appeared in The 
Flowering Plants of South Africa and in Storey and Wright’s South African 
Botany all her coloured drawings are still unpublished. These consist of con- 
siderably more than 200 drawings of that most important South African 
genus, Mesembrianthemum, and constitute an invaluable contribution to our 
knowledge of that difficult group. Besides these are some 30 drawings of 
orchids, about 100 of plants of the Cape Peninsula, and many sketches of 
various other plants, especially in the family Iridaceae. It is indeed a splendid 
legacy and will serve to immortalise her name in the annals of South African 
botany. Besides her special work as botanical artist Miss Page felt the deepest 
concern in the welfare of the Herbarium, and was always ready to further its 
interests in every direction. In her death, therefore, we lose one of the 
staunchest of friends, as well as a thoroughly skilled worker, and such a loss 
is irreparable. 
In 1921 Miss Page had the gratification of returning to England for a 
few months’ stay with her family. 
She was surrounded by her colleagues, comrades and friends to the last. 
