The search for ‘La Botaniste’
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sorting through your attic or garage can lead to interesting discoveries and mementos from the past, and staff at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) have made a surprising discovery doing just that.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While going through old plant books, they found poems, doodles, plant specimens, and a cartoon tucked away inside a copy of </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The English Flora</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from 1830.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The owner, Isabella A Allen, appeared to be a keen plant woman. But, her name has since been lost to history.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She may be the 19th century botanical illustrator who we know little about, or she could be one of the many uncelebrated women with a passion for plants during the 19th century.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Either way, the RHS is hoping to identify who she is and find out more about her life.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“All we’ve got is a reasonably common name and lots of contextual stuff that she’s interested in biology,” said Fiona Davison, the head of libraries and exhibitions.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“What I’m hoping is that somebody is aware in their family tree of an Isabella A Allen, that they’ve got any information about being a botanical artist or involved in botany.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Staff also found a collection of pressed flowers in the book, written by Sir James Edward Smith, which gives them a further insight into her knowledge of plants.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I think she clearly is a keen botanist because pressed in a number of pages are wild flowers,” Fiona said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kidney vetch, cranesbill, lousewort, and sow thistle among others were found.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“They’re wildflowers when you’re out on a botanising trip you would have picked up, identified with the help of the book and pressed.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though the book itself isn’t rare, the annotations, bookmarks, and cartoon make it unique from the many other copies the RHS owns. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Staff came across the find while going through boxes of books ahead of the combining or their two collections in new laboratories.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I don’t think that this volume had been opened in decades. It’s just been sat in an attic in Wisley,” Fiona said. “We opened this little one and we were really amazed to find all of this additional material left by its original owner.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As well as an annotation reading “this is the book of Isabella A Allen”, a print known as a personification was also found inside.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Personifications, printed and sold as sheets, depicted people made up of artefacts that embody their character or tools of their trade.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The one found inside Isabella’s book depicted a person made of flowers and vegetables, which was produced by a male midwife and surgeon called George Spratt.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The book also contains a handwritten poem that appears to be an adaptation of a common poem, including a reference to botanists filling a garden with plants with Greek and Latin names.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though the RHS has unsuccessfully attempted to track her down, it’s hoped someone can help them solve the mystery.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We hope that we’ll be able to share it with people and show it in the new library as part of the wider effort we’re making to encourage people to take an interest in the plants that are growing around them in the same way that Ms Allen did,” Fiona said.</span></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: The Royal Horticultural Society</span></em></p>
