SOURCE: Losano, Antonia. “A Preference for Vegetables: The Travel Writings and Botanical Art of Marianne North.” Women's Studies 26 (1997): 423-48.

In the following essay, Losano discusses Marianne North's memoirs and examines her observations of flora during her travels, her stance against notions of women's role in botanical sciences, and her revision of the Romantic notions of nature. Losano also discusses North's paintings and their relation to her writing.

1. in Which an Exploding Mushroom Propels the Young Marianne Into a Career as a Botanical Artist

Marianne North (1830-1890), in her memoir Recollections of a Happy Life, describes her first encounter with plant life—the kingdom which will become the main interest of her adult life and the motivation behind her extensive travels¹—in rather suggestive terms:

Amongst others, Mrs. Hussey's two large volumes on British fungi were my great delight one summer, and started me collecting and painting all varieties...