''The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed'', is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''.
Each of the issues contains a description, in formal yet accessible language, and is renowned for featuring the work of two centuries of
botanical illustrators. Many plants received their first publication on the pages, and the description given was enhanced by the keenly detailed illustrations.
History and profile
The first issue, published on 1 February 1787, was begun by
William Curtis
William Curtis (11 January 1746 – 7 July 1799) was an English botanist and entomologist, who was born at Alton, Hampshire, site of the Curtis Museum.
Curtis began as an apothecary, before turning his attention to botany and other natural his ...
, as both an illustrated gardening and botanical journal. Curtis was an
apothecary and botanist who held a position at
Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...
, who had published the highly praised (but poorly sold) ''
Flora Londinensis
''Flora Londinensis'' is a folio sized book that described the flora found in the London region of the mid 18th century. The ''Flora'' was published by William Curtis in six large volumes. The descriptions of the plants included hand-coloured cop ...
'' a few years before. The publication familiarized its readers with ornamental and exotic plants, which it presented in
octavo format. Artists who had previously given over their flower paintings to an affluent audience, now saw their work published in a format accessible by a wider one. The illustrations were initially hand-coloured prints, taken from copper engravings and intended to complement the text. Identification by a general reader was given in exploded details, some of which were given as a section. This was accompanied by a page or two of text describing the plants properties, history, growth characteristics, and some common names for the species.
![Iris persica (Sowerby)2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Iris_persica_%28Sowerby%292.jpg)
The first volume's illustrations were mostly by
Sydenham Edwards. A dispute with the editors saw his departure to start the rival ''
The Botanical Register''. The credit for the first plate (
''Iris persica'') goes to
James Sowerby, as did a dozen of Edwards contributions. The first thirty volumes used copper engraving to provide the plates, the hand colouring of these was performed by up to thirty people. An issue might have a circulation of 3000 copies, with 3 plates in each. As costs of production rose, and demand increased, results would be variable within a run. The later use of machine colouring would provide uniformity to the artists work, although the process could not give the same detail for many years. The magazine has been considered to be the premier journal for early botanical illustration.
![Dianthus barbatus00](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Dianthus_barbatus00.jpg)
When Curtis died, having completed 13 volumes (1787–1800), his friend
John Sims became editor between 1801 and 1807 (Volumes 15–26) and changed the name.
William Hooker was the editor from 1826, bringing to it his experience as a botanist, and as author of the rival magazine, ''
Exotic Botany
Exotic may refer to:
Mathematics and physics
* Exotic R4, a differentiable 4-manifold, homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the Euclidean space R4
*Exotic sphere, a differentiable ''n''-manifold, homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the ordinar ...
''. W. J. Hooker brought the artist
Walter Hood Fitch
Walter Hood Fitch (28 February 1817 – 1892) was a botanical illustrator, born in Glasgow, Scotland, who executed some 10,000 drawings for various publications.
His work in colour lithograph, including 2700 illustrations for ''Curtis's Bot ...
to the magazine, this artist became the magazines principal artist for forty years.
Joseph Dalton Hooker followed his father, becoming the Director of Kew Gardens in 1865, and editor of its magazine. Fitch resigned from the magazine in 1877 following a dispute with Hooker—for whom Fitch had been preparing illustrations for several books—and Hooker's daughter
Harriet Anne Hooker Thiselton-Dyer stepped in.
[ She rendered almost 100 illustrations for publication during the period 1878–1880, helping to keep the magazine viable until the next principal artist, ]Matilda Smith
Matilda Smith (1854–1926) was a botanical artist whose work appeared in ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine'' for over forty years. She became the first artist to depict New Zealand's flora in depth, the first official artist of the Royal Botanic ...
took over as lead illustrator.[
Like Thiselton-Dyer, Smith was brought to the magazine by Hooker, who was her cousin. Between 1878 and 1923 Smith drew over 2,300 plates for Curtis's. Her exceptional contribution was to see her become the first botanic artist of Kew, and she was later made an associate of the Linnean Society—the second woman to have achieved this. The scientific value of the figures and illustration, a source of pride and notability for the magazine, required the careful training of the illustrators. The artist worked closely with the botanist to depict a specimen, the use of exploded details surrounding the depiction gave the volumes practical appeal to botanists, horticulturalists, and gardeners.
The magazine is the greatest serial of botanical illustration yet produced, the consistent quality of the journal's plates and authority make this the most widely cited work of its kind. Other 19th century artists who contributed largely to the magazine include Augusta Innes Withers and Anne Henslow Barnard, Joseph Dalton Hooker's sister-in-law, who was active in the period 1879–1894.][ The hand-coloured plates were a labor-intensive process, but this tradition was continued by another principal illustrator, Lilian Snelling (1879–1972), from 1921 until 1948][Catherine Horwood ] A photomechanical process was implemented after this time. In 1921, Lilian Snelling, took over as chief illustrator on the magazine, a position she held until 1952, producing over 830 paintings and plates during her tenure From 1929, she was assisted by Stella Ross-Craig, a talented illustrator and botanist who remained at Kew until the 1960s, contributing 3000 illustrations to many publications including Curtis's.[Ward, Marilyn and Rix, Martyn, Curtis's Botanical Magazine, vol. 23, 2006, pp. 256–258]
It has been published continuously ever since, with a change of name to ''The Kew Magazine'' from 1984 to 1994. In 1995 the name reverted to that of the widely cited, ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''. It continues to be published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...
as a publication for those interested in horticulture, ecology or botanical illustration.
The standard form of abbreviation is ''Curtis's Bot. Mag.'' or ''Botanical Magazine'' in the citation of botanical literature.
See also
* List of horticultural magazines
This is a list of notable magazines devoted to horticulture and gardening.
Canada
* ''Garden Culture''
* '' Greenhouse Canada''
* '' Garden Making''
United Kingdom
* '' Amateur Gardening'' - monthly, published by IPC
* '' BBC Gardeners' Worl ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
Journal page
at Wiley-Blackwell
Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publish ...
website
*
Issues 1984– vol. 1, Ne
*
Vol. 2
Vol. 3
Vol. 4
Vol. 5
Vol. 6
* {{cite book , title=DJVU scans of the First 20 issues , url=http://fax.libs.uga.edu/QK1xC981/ , publisher=University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
, url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701223857/http://fax.libs.uga.edu/QK1xC981/ , archive-date=2007-07-01
Curtis Botanical Images Digital Collection
Iowa Digital Library, University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''
at the Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as worldwide consortiumof natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working toge ...
vols. 15 (1801) – 103 (1877)
Curtis Botanical Images of Carnivorous Plants from the John Innes Centre Historical Collection
Curtis's Botanical Magazine
at HathiTrust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...
Digital
Curtis's Botanical Magazine
at Wiley Online Library
Curtis's Botanical Magazine
at Botanical Scientific Journals
1787 establishments in Great Britain
Horticultural magazines published in the United Kingdom
Botany journals
Magazines established in 1787