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IN MEMORY OF MARIANNE NORTH. 829
Pteris aqvilina, tliougli the specific gravity of this fcra must be
much the greater. The upper surface looks ahuost hke embossed
leather. As shown by the scars of fallen scales, the stipe and
rachis when young are very thickly clothed. Mr. Mann says
this is so.
IN MEMORY OF MAEIANNE NOETH.
On the 30th of August last this talented and remarkable woman
was released from suffering and passed away in her beautiful home
at Alderton, in Gloucestershire, whither she had retired to spend
in quiet the all too brief evening of an active and productive life.
Thousands of persons scattered all over the world, who know the
name and work of Marianne North, would doubtless fiiin learn
something more of her to whom we are indebted for so much
enjoyment, in her gallery at Kew, of "paintings of plants and their
homes." It was there, while busily engaged on her work, that I
made the acquaintance of Miss North, and it is of her work and
working that I would specially write. I will first, however, give a
few particulars of her earlier life, taken from a sketch by one of her
friends, which appeared in the ' Queen ' some years ago.
Marianne North was born at Hastings in 1830, and was the
daughter of Mr. Frederick North, of Eougham, in Norfolk, who was
for some time M.P. for Hastings. Her mother was the eldest
daughter of Sir John Majoribanks. Music and painting were her
natural gifts ; and she early developed the great skill in painting
flowers that has rendered her name famous. Frequent travel gave
her opportunities for exercising this talent, until it grew into an
all-absorbing passion. The years 18G5 to 18G7 she spent with her
father, chielly in iSyria and up the Nile, and a series of sketches
made during this period received high praise from competent
judges. Mr. North died in 1869, and thereafter his daughter
devoted her life to painting. In 18G9-70 she travelled and painted
in Sicily ; but, so far as I remember, only one of the paintings
made in that country is in the collection at Kew. It is interesting,
as representing a group of papyrus growing in the Eiver Ciane, the
only locality ni which it is found wild on the European side of the
Mediterranean, where it may possibly have been introduced. In
1871 or 1872 Miss North visited North America and the West
Indies, and painted assiduously, spending more than two months
in solitude in a lonely house amongst the hills of Jamaica. Many
of the paintings made on this journey are in the gallery at Kew,
and I believe they were the first submitted to botanical scrutiny ;
a small selection of them was sent to Sir Joseph Hooker at the
Kew Herbarium. Her next voyage was to Brazd, where she was
received with nuich distinction b}' the Emperor ;
yet she lived the
greater part of the time in a deserted hut in the forest, and her
provisions were taken to lier from a distance of eight miles by a
slave woman, who is commemorated in one of the pauitings at Kew.
On the return journty Miss North called at Tencrille. Then