ble to present true imitations of plants, by mere coloured copperplates
that is to say, by impressions from engraved copper, in printing
which, one, two, three, or even more colours, are put on the copper.
Nothing comes near to nature, and consequently nothing is faithful,
but colours laid on the coloured impressions, by the pencil, under
the direction of persons well acquainted with the real hues of plants.
To verify this assertion, it may be mentioned, that the superbly executed
plates of Michaux’s forest trees, are all coloured by hand, a fact
not generally known, but one of which any person may satisfy himself
by rapidly sponging with clean water any one of those plates. All
the colouring can be washed away, and the engraving will be found
printed in green, brown, red, and yellow—sometimes in only one,
occasionally in two, or all of these colours. And it is to imitate this
accurate and expressive style that the author has made the attempts
alluded to. For example, the plate of the cranberry and that
of the scull-cap in Nos. VI. and VII. of this Flora, are highly finished
specimens of this expressive species of engraving; but still more
highly wrought examples will be found in No. VIII., which will be
published on the first of March. In that No. the plates of cleome
dodecandra and solanum carolinense, will not be found to suffer
from rigid comparison with the exquisite plates of Michaux’s Forest
Trees—and they are executed, both by dotted engraving and
coloured by hand, precisely in the same manner as the plates
of that magnificent work. As far as the engraving is concerned,
the author feels himself capable of giving an impartial opinion;
and it is but justice to the enterprize and talents of Mr. Tiebout
to state thus much. Whether the colouring of the plates alluded to
in No. VIII. will be found equal to Michaux’s is not for the author,
but the public, to decide. Thus much he may with propriety state:
that his work on Vegetable Materia Medica contained the first coloured
engravings of plants which had issued from an American press—
they were begun without any information as to the tact employed in
this kind of work in England, where it has attained so high a
degree of perfection. Owing to the impossibility of obtaining information
as to the manner of colouring abroad, he has been obliged
to make repeated experiments, and has thus gradually brought it to
the style exhibited in the present work. He has now the satisfaction
of presenting a close imitation of the French method. Both
of the different kinds of engraving, (the finished dotted and the
line,) will be used in this work in future; each having its peculiar
beauty, advantage, and expression, for presenting pictured imitations
of plants of diverse characters and physiognomy.
In justice to the publishers who have embarked in this, the most
extensive original work ever undertaken in this country, it should
be mentioned: that the present plan enhances the expense of the
work, and, in some measure, lessens the author’s profits, while at
the same time, the price is not augmented. And as more is given to
the subscribers than promised, the Publishers confidently look for an
enlarged patronage by an increasing subscription.