Evening star., 1925-06-28
BOOK ON FLOWERS
DEPICTS RARE ONES
Mrs. c. D. WaIcott Publishes
Sketches of Blooms of
America.

Mrs. Charles d. Walcott, wife of
the Secretary of the Smithsonian In.
stitution, in Washington. is on the eve
of seeing a dream come true-a dream
in which are intertwined the expert
ences of many years of her life. AS
Mary NauN of Philadelphia, the young
daughter of a scientist father and the
sister of scientist brothers. she began
the life that later led to the dream
ing.
Mrs. Walcott has hoped for years
that she would be able to have pre-
served indefinitely for the enjoyment
and information of those interested
the first-h hand knowledge, which she
gained of the profusion of delicate and
beautiful wild flowers OF North Amer
lea during her travels with her hus-
band on his annual geological ex-
ploratlons. These excursions. for the
most part, have been taken in the
Summer months through the remote
regions of the Canadian Rockies.
Has 500 Sketches.
On these trips with her husba nd
MRS. Walcott always takes her sketch
ing equipment and, as result, she
has on hand now about 500 sketches in
water color of wild flowers as thew
III
these blossoms are so fragile that their
lie of maturity is only few days
consequently, there are thousands
mat nave not yet been sketched, for
one must hurry and be in many places
TO catch these beautiful bits Of nature
at their zenith.
But the sketches which Mrs. Wal
colt has made have been done so
truthfully and with such exquisite
perfection that they have won the
admiration of professional art critics
and professional botaniSts And now.
a1tef years of working and wishing,
she Is to realize her dream. For. un-
DER the auspices of the Smithsonian
institution, there will he published
soon the first volume of Mrs. Walcott's s
collection of sketches and material
Is ready for five volumes.
In this work, which Mrs Walcott
does merely for the joy of the work.
ing, she is doing for the wild flowers
or North America what Audubon did
for its birds
The first edition of the first volume
is TO be de luxe edition OF 100 copies.
In order to raise the money necessary
Tor It's publication. subscribers for the
edlilon were secured in advance. Each
subscriber paid $500 for a COPY, which
VIII be his to enjoy and to hand down
10 ms nelrs or assigns. The cost of
tiis Hrst edltlon Will be S50. 0.000-so
there must be 100 subscribers
The work of obtaining the financial
support necessary for the publication
or this volume as Mrs. Walcott wished
II was assumed by Mrs. Walcott. In
person she canyaSSed the possible
subscribers. In this way she raised
$4,000 and would probably have com.
pleted the required amount had not
her husband insisted that the combi.
nation of that work and the other she
was doing made life entirely too
strenuous for her and that she would
nave TO stop. So two men finished the
canvass.
Epochal Volume
The publication of this volume will
De epochal in the history of reproduc.
tion. TO obtain the quality of paper
tnat would for a thousand years at
least-and, perhaps, forever-retain
the imprint of the wild flower
sketches in truthful reproduction a
paper mill in Massachusetts expert
mented Tor several months and at last
achieved success. Printers every
where had insisted that the reproduc-
tions could not be made except on a
smooth, glossy paper. DR.. Walcott
ana Mrs. Walcott maintained that to
get the proper tone effects a rough
paper was required. Such a paper
has been evolved.
AS the Smithsonian Institution was
founded for the increase and diffu.
sion of knowledge" there can be no
copyright on this work Of Mrs. Wal
colt.
The first volume of the work, to
be entitled North American Wild
Flowers will contain about 200
pages. On one page will be a brief
history of the flower written for popu-
lar comprehension by Mrs Waicott
and on the opposite page will be the
reproduction of the blossom as oriei-
nally sketched in water colors by Mrs.
Wolcott. These sketches are done en-.
tirely with the brush.
i am neither an artist nor a botan-
list, says Mrs. Walcott, but l know
my plants and 1 can mix my colors. -
Both heredity and environment
seem to have played a part in pro-
ducing in Mrs. Walcott an appre.
citation of nature and a love of the
out-of-doors. An uncle was a famous
geologist and her father was a keen
amateur student of glaciers. Her
childhood and girlhood were spent
in the country near Bryn Mawr, Pa.
which estate Mrs. Walcott still owns.
The beautiful piece of woodland back
of Bryn Mawr College is a part of
the Vaux tract.
During the last 10 years Mrs. Wal
colt spent from three to four months
each season on the trail in the Cana
dian Rockies, where she went with
DIR. Walcott on his geological explora.
tions. During the Summers that the
Walcotts have been on these camp
ing trips in the Canadian Rockies
they have covered more than 5000
miles in distance
DIR. and Mrs. Walcott plan to leave
soon for another season of camping
In the remote places of the Canada n
Rockies. Mrs. Walcott is keen over
the prospect of bringing back in the
Autumn several new sketches to add
to her large collection of exquisite
wild flower sketches.