Large-flowered Butterwort.

William Curtis (1746-1799) was from a Quaker family much interested in medicine. He was apprenticed to an apothecary who left him his business, but he sold it to concentrate on his real interest, the study of natural history, and became well known as a horticulturist. Curtis had a subscription garden near London, where for a guinea a year the members had access to the plants and the library. He published the first edition of the Flora Londiniensis in parts from 1775-1798, but it was not a financial success. It was large, costly, and the plants illustrated, which grew wild around London, were considered by many to be not much better than weeds.

The second edition, considerably enlarged by George Graves, is shown here.

Greater Plantain.

Common Polypody (fern)

An early reissue of the first numbers of the Botanical Magazine , with Curtis' portrait. Volume 1, 1793.

William Curtis began the Botanical Magazine in 1787, and with a few lapses and several changes of editor, title and publisher, it continues today as Curtis¹ Botanical Magazine. Unlike the Flora Londiniensis it was devoted to showy and unusual plants which appealed to gardeners.

The first editor after William Curtis was John Sims. The principal illustrator continued to be Sydenham Edwards (1768-1819), whom Curtis had trained.

Night-Smelling Rocket. Curtis¹ Botanical Magazine ... p. 730.

Trailing Nolana. Curtis¹ Botanical Magazine. p. 731.

American Great Bindweed. Botanical Magazine p. 731.

Last updated: 5/5/00 by knox@jhu.edu