The Floral Paintings of Harriet Stewart Miner

and her book

"Orchids: The Royal Family of Plants,
with Illustrations from Nature"
published in 1885

by David Patrick

Presented with permission of the Clinton County Historical Association

     Found in the Clinton County Historical Association's collections is a series of floral paintings made by artist Harriet Stewart Miner.  Although the paintings had been donated to the museum in 1983 by a distant relative, little was known about her or her paintings.  Recently, it was discovered that Harriet was a distinguished American botanical illustrator of flowers and publisher of the first color book in America about orchids.

    Harriet Stewart Miner, who was called Hattie, was born in 1840 in Penn Yan, N.Y. and was the third child of Rev. Ovid Miner and Eliza (Moore) Miner.  Ovid was born in Middletown, Vermont, on July 7, 1803.  He first worked as a journalist and founded two small newspapers in Poultney and Castleton, Vermont.  He then attended the Auburn Theological Seminary in Auburn, N.Y. and graduated in 1834 where he was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church. Ovid married Eliza Moore that same year. 

    Eliza was the daughter of Champlain resident Noadiah Moore and grand-daughter of Judge Pliny Moore and was born in Champlain.  Noadiah Moore founded the Champlain Agricultural Works which manufactured farm equipment for about 100 years.  He was also a major influence in the temperance and abolitionist movements and operated the last leg of the Underground Railroad in Champlain.

Eliza (Moore) Miner, courtesy CCHA

The first home of Noadiah Moore was on Main Street in Champlain just east of the old Village Hall (corner of Main and Church Streets).  His second home was across from St. Mary's Church (burned down on May 6, 1873).  This drawing was made by Harriet Miner where she notes the birth of her mother Eliza: "Birthplace of Mrs. E.M. Miner Champlain Clinton Co N.Y.  August 8 1873."  Courtesy of CCHA. 

    After Rev. Miner was ordained, he practiced in Peru, N.Y. (1834-36), Penn Yan, N.Y. (1837-1844), Syracuse (1846-1849), Hoyleton, Ill. (1856-1864), East Poultney, Vt. (1870-1873) and Syracuse again (1873-1891).  He was also a traveling lecturer in the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s and gave speeches at temperance and abolitionist meetings.  Ovid died in Syracuse in 1891 and was buried there. 

    It is interesting to note that Hoyleton, Ill. is named after the Hoyle family of Champlain after a family member settled there.  Part of Rouses Point, New York was also named Hoyleton in the 1850s in honor of Champlain resident George Vischer Hoyle who was General Superintendent of the Northern Railroad. Hoyleton later merged with Rouses Point.

    Harriets older brother was Brinkerhoff Noadiah Miner and he enlisted in the 34th NY Infantry in 1861 at Champlain, was captured by the Confederate Army and sent to the notorious Libby Prison where he contracted TB.  He died in 1871 of the disease.

    Harriet's family was very close to the Nye and McLellan families of Champlain.  Eliza Miner's sister, Laura (Moore) Nye, lived at the Locust Hill estate on Elm Street in Champlain (later called the Savoy Hotel in the 1930s and 1940s; it burned down in February of 2003).  The McLellans lived in the former Pliny Moore house, purchased from Admiral John White Moore, grandson of Pliny, in 1883.

A contemporary view of the Pliny Moore house in Champlain (corner of Oak and Elm Streets) in 1880 painted by Harriet Miner on a ceramic plate.  On the back is written "Experimet [sic] 1880  H.S.M."  Courtesy of CCHA.

 

    The McLellan house in Champlain.  The original homestead of Judge Pliny Moore was built in 1801 and was based on a house design of a friend named Robinson who lived in Bennington, Vermont.  The house passed to Pliny Moore (Jr.) in 1822 and then to Admiral John White Moore (grandson of Judge Pliny Moore and grandson of Gen. Benjamin Mooers of Plattsburgh) in the late 1870s.  When John White Moore moved to San Francisco in the early 1880s (he was in the Navy and received a transfer), he sold the house in 1883 to Charles and Elizabeth (Nye) McLellan.  Elizabeth was the great-granddaughter of Judge Pliny Moore.  The house burned down on April 27, 1912 and was rebuilt by Charles to the same outside specifications as the original house because future architect Hugh McLellan had measured the house around 1897-98 for a college architectural project.  The house was rebuilt by 1913 and the McLellans moved back in.  Charles owned the house until his death in 1918 when it passed to his sons Hugh and Malcolm.  Hugh's son Woody inherited the house in 1962 and it was owned by him until his death in 1983 when it was bought by the M.B. Clark Funeral Home who had rented the main house since the mid-1930s.  This photo was taken January 1, 2001 and shows the original Locust trees which are seen in an 1886 photo (shown in a Champlain Historic Calendar).  Some of the Locust trees were removed around 2000.

    Ovid and Eliza were uncle and aunt to Champlain residents Hugh and Malcolm McLellan.  Hugh was a printer and collector of history and one of the founding members of the Clinton County Historical Association in 1945.  His son Woody, along with Professor Allan Everest, created the North Country Notes newsletter in 1960 and printed it using the Moorsfield Press for about 12 years.  Malcolm McLellan is the great-grandfather of this author. 

    While visiting the Miner family at Syracuse in 1881, Hugh and Malcolm's brother Donald contracted meningitis and died at the age of eight.  Hugh McLellan wrote in 1941: "Syracuse has a very warm spot in my heart, for we had many happy days with Rev. Ovid Miner and his wife, who was a sister of my grandmother - we called her Aunt Miner."

    Harriet Miner was born in 1840 and attended Oberlin College in Ohio in 1860.  She was an accomplished painter and teacher of painting and painted portraits and landscapes.  Many of her paintings were placed in homes around Syracuse.  Her specialty was painting flowers, especially orchids.  She became a self-taught botanist and painted flowers in astonishing detail. 

    The Clinton County Historical Association owns at least seven floral paintings that were signed by Harriet Miner and possibly others that were not signed (see the paintings at the end of this article).  These paintings found their way to Champlain and later came to the museum in the early-1980s by a donation from Woody and Hulda McLellan.

    The significance of the CCHA paintings was not realized until recently when a letter by Hugh McLellan was uncovered at Special Collections at the Feinberg Library at Plattsburgh State.  In 1954, McLellan wrote to a person in Syracuse who was researching Ovid Miner.  In the letter, he mentioned that Harriet had published a book about flowers.  McLellan wrote: "I was 17 years old when he [Ovid] died, and of course remember "Uncle Miner" as we always called him.  We used to visit Aunt Miner, and their daughter, Cousin Hattie, quite often, they would visit us in New York City... As I remember him he was a most lovable person and so was his wife...They had three children. I remember only their daughter, who we called "Cousin Hattie".  She was an artist, especially of flowers, and only last week I received a catalogue of old books which offered: "MINER, Harriet S. Orchids; Royal Family of Plants. 1885. Folio. Colored plates. $25.00."

    After it was discovered that Harriet Miner had published a book on orchids, an Internet search quickly revealed many images from her 1885 book.  The style of these paintings was similar to the paintings at CCHA.  It was revealed that Miner's book  was the first color plate orchid book published in the United States (it was simultaneously published in England by a different publisher). 

    Miner's orchid book contained 24 large-format chromo-lithographs that were printed using a special French lithographic process (the designs were engraved on stone).  The scientific name of each flower was given as well as details of its growing location and life history.  Miner had access to orchid collections in the Syracuse area, Albany, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and Cincinnati and spent years preparing her book.  The book also contained many poems written by guest authors.  The book was sold at the steep price of $15 and $30 [$432-$864 today] depending on the paper and binding.            

        Courtesy Archive.org

     Many reviews gave favorable comments about Miner's book.  Professor Charles Wesley Bennett, a founding member of Syracuse University's Ranke Library, described Miner's work as "very striking, the ranking work on the subject."  Another review noted: "The plates are the finest specimens of art printing ever produced in any country...Evidently the artists and printers were given carte blanche in this volume, for nothing so beautiful was ever before attempted."  The book became a major resource for botanists as well as lovers of flowers.

    In July 1887, two years after Miner's book was published, she visited Philadelphia again to paint flowers.  A local newspaper wrote of her visit: "...She is a skillful artist, having already attained an enviable name in her profession, and she is sketching some of the many natural beauties of which Philadelphia can boast, to be reproduced in future paintings.  Mrs. Miner will be best remembered as the author of "Orchids," a rare book of art recently published by Lee and Shepherd, Boston, and illustrated by herself.  It contains plates and minute descriptions of nearly all the varieties of this eccentric family of plants, painted from nature, while in bloom, and appearing in all their quaint and surpassing beauty.  The book has had a wide sale."

    The Oberlin College newspaper Oberlin Review, described Miner's book in a short announcement published on June 26, 1888: "A beautifully illustrated book on orchids has lately come to the college library through Rev. C.C. Creegan, '76 Theo.  The author is Miss Harriet Stewart Miner, who was a student at Oberlin in 1860. Miss Miner has made color drawings of about twenty-five handsome species, scatter through thirteen genera, and are finely reproduced in chromo-lithographic plates of quorto size. The text, also by Miss Miner, gives descriptions of the order and the varieties represented, the whole being freely interspersed with choice selections from the poets and best writers upon these wonderful flowers. Lee & Shepherd of Boston, issue the work in a very attractive semi-portfolio style. The work is rather artistic and literary than scientific, still no one will find greater delight in it than the lover and student of flowers."

    Harriet Miner also published a pamphlet that is very rare. It is called "A Christmas Garland" which was a compilation of poetry and flower paintings.  The poetry was written by her father, Rev. Ovid Miner, and also Prof. Charles W. Bennett (of Syracuse University), John Greenleaf Whittier, and Rev. Dr. Minot J. Savage of Cleveland, Ohio. 

    Harriet Miner's work as an amateur botanist and floral artist is similar to another little-known painter named Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft (1791-1828). Wollstonecraft was born in New Hampshire and moved to Cuba where she spent years studying and painting flora.  She died before she could publish her book "Specimens of the Plants and Fruits of the Island of Cuba."  Her unpublished book was found in 1923 but lost again until 2018.  The story of her book has been chronicled in several articles. 

    Harriet may have visited her aunt in Champlain in 1892.  In Malcolm McLellan's childhood diary of July 29, 1892 is the following note: "In the morning Mamma, Cousin Hattie, Peter [Cardin] and myself drove down to Rouses Point...After dinner we all with Hugh went around big square."  Harriet was ill the last four years of her life and died of pneumonia on February 23, 1895, at the age of 55.  Her obituary gave details about her painting, her orchid book and her life:

    "Harriet Stuart Miner, daughter of Mrs. Eliza M. and the late Rev. Ovid Miner, whose death occurred at her home in the Eleventh ward Saturday evening, was widely known in central New York as an artist and a student. The work of her pen and brush adorn many of the cultivated homes of the city. She was a native of New England but the greater part of her life has been spent in Syracuse. As a botanist and a painter she had become very familiar with all the interesting natural features of the county and the sublime hills of old Onondaga had not many more enthusiastic admirers. Her forte as an artist was flower painting, and in this she did much faithful and notable work. Her beautiful treatise on orchids published by Cassell & Co., about five years ago, has been accepted as authority in some of the best schools of the United States, both as to text and drawings. The author spent many years in preparing the work and had access to all the noted orchid collections in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Albany and Cincinnati. The task was also charmed by the privilege of personal association with some of the distinguished scholars of the age, including Phillips Brooks [author of the Christmas carol 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'] and James Freeman Clarke. Miss Miner suffered severely during the last four years, but she never lost her enthusiasm nor skill." [Syracuse Daily Standard, 1895]

     Three weeks after Harriet's death, her mother Eliza was taken to Champlain but died of a stroke.  Hugh McLellan wrote in 1954: "After Harriette's death on February 23, 1895, my grandmother (Aunt Miner's sister [Laura Nye]) went to Syracuse, closed up things there and brought Aunt Miner to Champlain. As they entered grandmother's home [the former Savoy Hotel], Aunt Miner had a stroke, and died almost immediately.  She is buried in the cemetery here."  Eliza's death occurred on March 16 and she was buried in Glenwood Cemetery next to her father, Noadiah Moore. The rest of her family, including Harriet, are buried in Syracuse at the Oakwood Cemetery.  Eliza's name is on her father's stone as well as her family's stone.

    Today, Harriet Miner's flower paintings are as timely now as they were when published in 1885.  Her book "Orchids; Royal Family of Plants" is found in libraries around the world and online. 

Research material courtesy Special Collections, Feinberg Library, State University of New York, College at Plattsburgh. 

Most images are from the collections of the Clinton County Historical Association and are presented here with written permission. 

Additional images courtesy of a private collection. 

The author is distantly related to Harriet Stewart Miner through their common ancestors of
Judge Pliny Moore and his son Noadiah Moore of Champlain, NY.   Harriet's mother was the sister of
the author's great-great grandmother. 

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North Country Notes:

Harriet Stewart Miner: Painter of Orchids

by David Patrick

(presented with permission of CCHA, in PDF format)

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 The Flora Paintings of Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft
of Cuba
(1791-1828)

"Specimens of the Plants and Fruits of the Island of Cuba"

    Harriet Stewart Miner's (1840-1895) paintings and the history behind her little-known work as a botanical illustrator is very similar to the story of another flora artist named Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft (1791-1828). Wollstonecraft was born in New Hampshire and moved to Cuba after 1817.  Wollstonecraft spent years documenting and painting the flora on the island.

    In the mid-1820s Wollstonecraft prepared three volumes of floral plates for a publication called "Specimens of the Plants and Fruits of the Island of Cuba" which included detailed descriptions and beautiful watercolors of many different types of flowers. Unfortunately, she died in 1828 before the book could be published. Her death occurred 12 years before the birth of Harriet Stewart Miner.

    Although botanists knew that Wollstonecraft had prepared a book for publication, her work was thought to have been lost. Almost one hundred years later, in 1923, the book surfaced when a relative, Benjamin Freeman Kingsbury, donated it to Cornell University in 1923. Unfortunately, the book was mis-catalogued and it was lost again. It was finally rediscovered in 2018.  The story of Wollstonecraft's life and the lost manuscript is found at the below links.

  The parallels between Wollstonecraft's and Miner's work is striking on many different levels.  First, the floral paintings were made by two women who were very interested in the science of flowers, which was unusual in the early or even late 1800s. Both were considered experts in the field of botany, yet they were self-taught.  Second, both artists strived to depict flowers in astonishing detail and this has resulted in paintings made by the artists that are very similar in style. A comparison of their published and unpublished work show striking similarities even though the watercolors were painted about 50 years apart.  Third, both women published (or prepared for publication) a book about their life's work with flowers. And fourth, both women died at a young age.  Wollstonecraft died at the age of 36 and Miner died at the age of 55, 67 years later.  

    Another coincidence occurred related to the work of the two artists. Harriet Stewart Miner's published work was discovered by this writer after finding a reference to the title of her orchid book in a letter written by a relative in 1954 (her work as an artist had been known since c1998). The letter was found at the end of January 2019 but research of this title was not commenced until May 5, 2019 when her book was quickly found online. In late April 2019, National Geographic published an article about Wollstonecraft's lost book which was seen in May 2019.  It quickly became apparent that many parallels existed between the two women and their work.  Extensive research in February 2020 discovered many more references and advertisements to Harriet Miner's orchid book that had been published in her time. These advertisements are shown below.

                                                                            David Patrick, February 23, 2020

Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft on Wikipedia

'Cornell Chronicle' article about Wollstonecraft's lost book

National Geographic article about Wollstonecraft's book

many other references to this book are found in a search of the web

    Wollstonecraft's unpublished book is found at Hathitrust.org in three volumes. 

"Specimens of the Plants and Fruits of the Island of Cuba"

Published Reviews of Harriet Stewart Miner's Book
from various online sources

"ORCHIDS, THE ROYAL FAMILY of PLANTS"
1885

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ARTHUR'S HOME MAGAZINE
1885.
PHILADELPHIA:
T.S. ARTHUR & SONS.
1885.

NEW PUBLICATIONS

    ORCHIDS, THE ROYAL FAMILY of PLANTS. By Harriet Stewart Miner. This is one of the most elegant gift-books of the season. It contains twenty-four brilliantly colored plates, closely imitating exquisite water-color pictures, illustrating the most striking varieties of these interesting and beautiful flowers, with descriptions of their nature and habits. For every lover of flowers, this handsome book will possess great attractiveness. We make the following selection from the preface:

    "This royal plant-family of ancient Grecian name, Opxic, whose structure and leading characteristics the following pages are designed to illustrate, is part of the world's flora until recently little known in this country. The singularly curious features of many varieties and the exquisite beauty or fragrance of others, have rapidly and widely, since their introduction from abroad, attracted the admiration of students in natural history and of all lovers of flowers.

    "One of our most enthusiastic and thoroughly capable florists justly says: 'Orchids are the elite of the floral kingdom. The flowers are, without exception, the most curious and beautiful in nature. Their qualities, taken separately, would give eminence to a race of plants; the singularity of their shapes, their delicate and aromatic odors, and the richness and variety of their colors -- all being different from anything we elsewhere meet.'

    "This weird and wonderful plant has its habit chiefly in the tropics, the most beautiful of the species coming from the East Indies; but the orchidaceae are found in all warm and most latitudes, and in nearly all localities, except each as are extremely dry and cold. A few varieties are found as far north even as the Canadas.

    "Scientific research has as yet discovered but few economical or practical uses of the orchid. A single variety, indeed, produces the vanilla of commerce, a highly valuable flavoring substance. The tubers of several species furnish a mucilaginous substance, named by the Turks salep, which is nutritious and is used for food. A number of varieties give choice perfumes, and a very few plants are understood to have a recognized place in the Materia Medics. Bat we need not doubt that future investigations will in due time furnish proofs of other uses for this strangely beautiful family of the world's flora."

    As might be expected, the examples of orchids given in this volume are chiefly foreign ones. There are, in fact, but few in the United States. Of these few, however, the majority are quite as curious as any exotics, although they may be less showy. But we have -- near at hand, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey -- a species of Cypripedium (C. spectabile) quite as beautiful as any of the genus depicted in the volume, and considered by experts one of the handsomest flowers ever discovered.

    This magnificent gift-book is published by Lee & Shepard, Boston. Price, $15.00.

Source: "Arthur's Home Magazine, Vol. 53, January 1885"

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Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, March 19, 20 & 21, 1888,

AT THREE O'CLOCK.
CATALOGUE
OF
GOOD BOOKS

A WELL SELECTED COLLECTION OF
VALUABLE AND DESIRABLE WORKS IN ARCHEOLOGY, HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, DRAMATIC BOOKS, THEATRICAL PORTRAITS AND RARE OLD PLAY BILLS, TRAVELS, POETRY, FICTION, AGRICULTURE, ETC.; HANDSOMELY ILLUSTRATED AND BOUND BOOKS, COPIES OF LIMITED EDITIONS AND EDITIONS-
DE-LUXE; A FEW CHOICE ENGRAVINGS,

    ORCHIDS. The Royal Family of Plants. Illustrated from nature by Harriet Stewart Miner, comprising 24 magnificent specimens in colors, each 10 by 14 inches. This volume is over fourteen inches in length, eleven inches wide, one and one half inches in thickness; gilt edges, bevelled covers, and richly adorned in black and gold.

    The plates are the finest specimens of art printing ever produced in any country. There isn't a shade of tint in the original flower that is not faithfully reproduced, not with a mere mechanical nicety of imitation, but the life and spirit of the flower is given. It is a bouquet which is nature itself, in everything but the odor. The process is the French lithographic, which is done in Boston more successfully than in Paris even, when a publisher has nerve enough to pay for it. Evidently the artists and printers were given carte blanche in this volume, for nothing so beautiful was ever before attempted.

Source: "Catalogue of Good Books, 1888"

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ORCHIDS, THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PLANTS.

By Harriet Stewart Miner. Boston: Published by Lee and Sheppard, and in New York, by Charles T. Dillingham. Price, $15.00.

    The most magnificent work of its class ever issued in our country, and will do more perhaps than any thing that has appeared to make orchid culture widely popular. There are seven great families of orchideae, and in the twenty-four plates given selections are made from all these, and thus is given a general idea of all the family. The species illustrated are, Dendrobium Devonianum, D. Ainsworthia, D. nobile, Masdevallia Veitchii, Cattleya Trianae, C. Chocoensis, C. Mossea, C. Loddigesii, Laelia autumnalis, L. Dayeana, Phalaenopsis Stuartiana, Oncidium Barkeri, Calanthe Veitchii, Aerides quinquevulnerum, Odontoglossum Roezlii album, O. triumphans, O. Alexandrea, Lycaste aromatica, Vanda suavis, Cymbidium Hookerianum, C. niveum, C. Haynaldium, and C. Spicerianum. The colored lithographic plates are all drawn by the authoress and are given here in quarto size. The lithography is very well done. Practical facts, philosophical speculations, classical allusions, poetical references, and various thoughts suggested by the subjects form the text, which is beautifully printed on heavily calendered, gilt edged paper. Possibly critics in the various departments of literature might want to qualify or add to what has been said by the authoress, but all will say that her attempt to offer a very beautiful and interesting work has been a signal success.

    For weddings or birthday presents, Easter gifts or memorial gifts of any kind, nothing we are sure would be more appreciated than a copy of this book; while those who have a collection of orchids, or desire to have one, will surely want this beautiful book in their libraries.

Source: "Gardeners Monthly and Horticulturist, V27, 1885"

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A BEAUTIFUL AND VALUABLE BOOK FOR ORCHID LOVERS.

The Royal Family of Plants.

    With illustrations from Nature by HARRIET STEWART MINER, comprising twenty-four magnificent specimens in colors, each 10 x 14 inches. This sumptuous volume is over 14 inches in length, 11 inches wide, 1 1/2 inches in thickness; gilt edges, beveled covers, and richly adorned in black and gold, and bound in the new beautiful gold, silver, or bronze cloth, making a sumptuous book.

    This book has been largely sold by the publishers for $15.00 a volume, but we have secured a few copies which we will send to our readers by mail for only $10.00 a volume.

751 Broadway, New York.


Source: "The American Garden, Feb. 1888, Vol. 9, No. 2"

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THE HORTICULTURAL ADVERTISER.

"The elite of the Floral Kingdom."

 ORCHIDS     THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PLANTS     ORCHIDS

    With 24 magnificent illustrations, life size, from living plants and colored to nature. Each 10x14 inches. Text is on splendid heavy plate paper.

BY HARRIET STEWART MINER.

    THE CULTIVATION of ORCHIDS is easily comprehended, and the method is very simple, as the pages of this volume successfully explain. Heat, ventilation and moisture are the chief factors. "An orchid house," says the author, "should. smell sweet as a flowery meadow does during a sudden burst of sunshine after a summer shower." They require, however, "as much care as a large family of children, and in bestowing such attention on the plants we come to love them."

    This sumptuous volume is over 14 inches in length, 11 inches wide, 1 1/2 inches in thickness, gilt edges, beveled covers and binding richly adorned in black and gold, and in the new beautiful silver, gold or bronze cloth, making a rarely sumptuous book. Gold cloth, full gilt, $15.00; Turkey Morocco, $30.00; Tree calf, $30.00. Address,

    LEE & SHEPARD. Boston. Mass.

Source: "Gardeners Monthly and Horticulturist, V27, 1885"

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ORCHIDS

The Royal Family of Plants

    With twenty-four illustrations from Nature, by HARRIET STEWART MINER, in colors. each 10x14 inches. With descriptive letter-press, Bound in gold, silver, or bronze cloth, richly adorned in black and gold, full gilt edges, price $15.00. Turkey, moroco, or tree calf, $30.00.

    There are but few families of the floral kingdom that are more interesting, as regards their life-history and their physical peculiarities, than the ORCHIDS. Until very recent years, they were little known in this country, and even now they are not fully appreciated or understood save by botanists and a small number of floriculturists.  On the Continent of Europe, however, their curious shapes, their exquisite beauty, and the delightful fragrance of the rarer species of some of these plants have attracted many observers; and it may even be said of the ORCHIDS that there they are looked upon as

"THE ELITE OF THE FLORAL KINGDOM."

    All of these illustrations were drawn by the artists from specimens found in American collections.  Such collections are not numerous, indeed, they are exceedingly rare, and have cost their several owners thousands of dollars.  It is reported that a small fortune has been paid for a single plant. Next to possessing one's own collection of ORCHIDS is the possession of this, the only work which has ever succeeded in doing justice to these regal flowers.

NOTICES OF THE PRESS.

    "The publication of a work of this kind furnishes a stronger proof and clearer indication of increasing refinement and elevated taste among our wealthier classes than anything else could offer.  In a pleasing, fascinating style the author describes all the most beautiful species generally found in cultivation; interweaving through her discourse the history, modes of cultivation, mythological legends relating to the respective species, together with some of the choicest poetical productions of the English language." - The American Garden.

    This truly magnificent work is one of the most noteworthy of recent publications in this country or abroad and is exceedingly creditable to the taste and resources of the publishers." -- Boston Traveler.

    "This book is a model of fine workmanship in its printing and binding. As it is the description of the "royal family of plants," so it is the royal book of the year." - Chicago Inter-Ocean.

    "The quality of the artistic execution is admirable. Every picture is a flower, from whatever angle or distance seen. The shading of the color and the glinting of the light are exquisite, and excellence is manifest in every particular of the work." - Syracuse Standard.

    "The plates are among the most beautiful representations of flowers ever done in color, and often reach to the true delicacy of the blossom tints... The text is more than sufficient." - Springfield Republican.

    "The most magnificent work of its class ever issued in our country, and will do more perhaps than anything that has appeared to make orchid culture widely popular. There are seven great families of ochidaea, and in the twenty-four plates given, selections are made from all of these, and thus is given a general idea of all the family. Those who have a collection of orchids, or desire to have one, will surely want this beautiful book in their libraries."  - Gardeners Monthly.

    "These beautiful and lifelike drawings of the artist will tend to increase the interest in the subject, and our leisured class may be expected to develop as fervent an appreciation of orchids as their English cousins have already cultivated." - New York Tribune.

    "This superb volume deserves the attention alike of flower-lovers and bibliopoles.  The Typography is faultless, and the paper is sumptuous." - County Gentleman, Albany.

    "Among the works of this season, the volume occupies a unique and important place because of its rich and truthful presentation of their rare plants of wondrous beauty and high-value. It is one of which any person will be proud to be the possessor." - Boston Sunday Globe.

    "A work of this magnitude, so carefully studied, so superbly produced, is a permanent delight, we are glad that publishers are willing to undertake books so credible to the art and culture of the country. Such a volume is a real education and anyhow so, and an unfailing pleasure." - Hartford Courant. 

LEE & SHEPARD, BOSTON.

THE MICROSCOPE.

REVIEWS.

    ORCHIDS, THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PLANTS. With 24 Illustrations from Nature, by Harriet Stewart Miner, in colors, each 10 by 14 inches. With descriptive letter-press.  Bound in gold, silver, or bronze cloth, full gilt edges, price $15.00; Turkey morocco, or tree calf, $30.00. Lee & Shepard, Boston.

    It would be difficult to find many persons who know anything about Botany who are not always interested in this "Royal Family of Plants."  Their beauty, their curious shapes and their peculiar life-history make them "the elite of the Floral Kingdom."

    The illustrations were drawn from specimens found in American collections; and the coloring represents the natural beauty of the plants.

    The binding of the copy before us is of the heaviest Turkey morocco, and with the text forms a model of workmanship. We have never seen more beautiful plates. The whole work is the most magnificent of its class we have ever seen, and many reviewers have declared it "the most beautiful and superb work ever issued in this country."

Source:  "The Microscope, Jan. 1885, Vol. 5, No. 1"

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LIFE

     Orchids: The Royal Family of Plants.

           With Illustrations from Nature by HARRIET STEWART MINER. Cloth, full gilt, $15.00. Turkey morocco, $25.00.

            The orchids enjoy the distinction of having been made the subject of closest study by Darwin to verify his theory of development. The various mutual adaptations of this flower and of the insects which resort to it for food, to secure the cross-fertilization of the flowers, are among the most striking instances of intelligent contrivance in nature. Aside from this wondrous intelligence, the orchid family exhibit singularity of shape, varieties of color, and other interesting features which cannot be overlooked. In this truly regal volume, the story of the orchids is given in gossipy outlines, along with twenty-four magnificent specimens in color (each 10x14 inches) from nature. The whole forms a beautiful volume, admirably calculated to inspire a wider and more lively interest in the reigning fashion flower of to-day.

Source: "Life, Vol. 5, Jan-June 1885"

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VICK'S
MONTHLY
MAGAZINE
VOLUME VIII, 1885.

    ORCHIDS, THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PLANTS, by Harriet Stewart Miner. Many and tempting are the holiday books, but among them all none can be found more attractive than this new treasure. The gorgeous cover only gives a faint idea of the beauties contained therein. In the introduction, Orchids are mentioned as the "elite of the floral kingdom," and surely a reigning Queen could not desire a more fitting tribute. The twenty-four colored plates, prepared by the Hatch Lithographing Company of New York, can hardly be surpassed. All descriptions are carefully written, while many poetical gems are scattered throughout the volume. The clear type, elegant paper and wide margins cannot fail to delight all. The volume is a quarto.

Published by Lee & Shepard, Boston, Mass. Cloth, full gilt, $15.00; Turkey morocco, $25.00.

Source: "Vick's Monthly, Vol. VIII, 1885"

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Now Ready.

ORCHIDS,
THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PLANTS.
With Illustrations from Nature by HARRIET STEWART MINER.

Comprising Twenty-four full-page Coloured Plates, accompanied by historical and descriptive letterpress. Folio, elegantly bound in cloth extra, gilt edges, L2 12S. 6d.   

Prospectus on application.

JOHN SLARK, 12, Busby Place, Camden Road, N.W. [LONDON]

Source: "J. Whitaker and Sons Limited, 1885"

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Orchids, the Royal Family of Plants. By HARRIET STEWART MINER. (Slark, 12, Busby Place, Camden Road, N.W.) - The fourteen noble drawings in this handsome volume are the proper piece de resistance, the text is nothing, and pretends to be no more. Miss Miner is not learned in orchids, but has a fine eye to discern their beauties and a dexterous hand to depict them. The plates measure 13 inches by 10 inches, and comprise the following subjects : Dendrobium Devonianum, D. Ainsworthi, D. nobile, Masdevallia Veitchi, Cattleya Triune, C. chocoensis, C. Mosseae, C. Loddigesi, Laelia autumnalis, L. Dayanum Phaltenopsis Stuartiana, P. Schilleriana, Onoidium Barkeri, and Calanthe Veitchi. The merits of the work must turn upon the accuracy and taste of these several portraits. Now we gladly record that they are, as described above, "noble drawings," and particularly good are the dendrobes and phalrenopsis. It is very singular that able artists have a way of working from bad models, and the selection in this case of a specimen of Cattleya Mossire was certainly unhappy, so that the very picture that should be the glory of the book is not quite so. The maedevallia is a weak picture, wanting in the daring expression of the living plant, which is a wonder when well grown. But we are not to judge the book by its weak points only, for indeed we may find weak points in pictures of plants drawn by men who thoroughly understand them. Taken as a whole this is an elegant and most acceptable table book for any lover of flowers, and comes before the public at a moment when such things are much in request as gifts to friends. Who so will buy this handsome volume will have value for the money, and will send Miss Miner words of encouragement to continue in her delightful occupation of depicting floral beauties with which her hand is in true sympathy.

Source:  "The Gardener's Magazine, Nov. 14, 1885"

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ORCHIDS.

THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PLANTS.

    With illustrations from nature by HARRIET STEWART MINER, comprising twenty-four magnificent specimens in colors, each 10 x 14 inches, reproductions of some of the most celebrated and costly varieties of this peculiar branch of the floral kingdom.
Cloth, full gilt, $15.00. Turkey morocco, $30.00. Tree calf, $30.00.

    The orchids enjoy the distinction of having been the subject of study by Darwin to verify his theory of development. The various mutual adaptations of this flower and of the insects which resort to it for food, to secure the cross-fertilization of the flowers, are among the most striking instances of intelligent contrivance in nature. Aside from this wondrous intelligence, the orchid family exhibit singularities of shape, varieties of color, and other interesting features, which cannot be overlooked. In this truly regal volume, the story of the orchids is given in gossippy outlines, along with as fine a series of illustrations as art can produce.

    ***Sold by all booksellers or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price. Send your name and address, and receive in return our Illustrated Holiday Catalogue.

LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers,

BOSTON.

Source: "The Dial, Vol. V, May 1884-April 1885"

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Source:  "The Publisher's Weekly, Jan. 31, 1885"