Wild Flowers of Britain Month by Month [Hardcover]

Margaret Erskine Wilson, late President of Kendal Natural History Society, was a keen amateur botanist and water-colourist. In 1999, she donated to the Society 150 sheets of water-colour paintings representing a thousand British and Irish plants in flower and in fruit, painted in situ over many years and in various places.At the time she donated the paintings to Kendal Natural History Society, she wrote:Begun in 1943/4 for a friend who said, 'I might learn the names of flowers if you drew them for me, in the months they're in flower'!The result is this beautiful, previously unpublished book of all her accurate and informative illustrations, painted over a period of 45 years.Over a thousand British and Irish flowers are represented in this book and it still today serves Margaret Erskine Wilson's original purpose  it is an easy way to learn the names of our delicate and beautiful wild flowers.Editor's noteMargaret Wilson's paintings of flowers and fruit throughout the year, comprise over 1000 specimens and were compiled over a period of 45 years. Not only did the style of her paintings develop but the content of her pencilled notes on the back of each painting changed considerably. Names of the area or places where the specimens were painted are given on almost all the paintings, though in more detail on later ones. She also made cross references to the months of fruiting (where a flower is illustrated) and flowering (where the fruit is shown) throughout the project. Apart from this, the backs of early paintings give little information except occasional mention of interesting alternative English names.This reflects Margaret's original purpose  to assist her friend in learning to recognise wild flowers  but after she had 'repossessed' the calendar (as she called the project) the notes became more detailed and often included the scientific names and notes on habitat. Individual paintings are not dated but clearly the small number of winter and autumn months were donel7