Flora vitiensis: a description of the plants of the Viti or Fiji Islands with an account of their history, uses and properties

This book is the result of the collaborative work of German botanist Berthold Carl Seemann (1825-1871) and Scottish botanical illustrator Walter Hood Fitch (1817-1892). Seemann was also a well-travelled explorer and authored numerous other books throughout his life, and in 1863 he established the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, which ran until 1942. Fitch was the official artist working for Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, and Curtis’s Botanical Magazine until 1877, for which alone he produced around 2700 lithographs.

Encouraged by Sir Joseph Hooker (1817-1911), director at Kew, Seemann joined a British survey mission to Fiji in 1860. During the six-month stay there, he studied and collected a large number of plants which he brought back with him to England. These formed the foundation for Flora Vitiensis, which was published in 10 parts between 1865-73. In it, Seemann named and described all plant species found in Fiji known at the time, including 204 new species which he named himself.

The plant specimens collected by Seemann were deposited at the Royal Herbarium, Kew, where Fitch used them (as well as earlier specimens and drawings) to create 100 plates to illustrate the monumental volume. These hand-coloured lithographs are not just visually stunning, but they dissect the plants’ details with scientific accuracy, showing different elements such as seeds, leaves, bark and flowers. Hooker was a great admirer of Fitch’s work, and he said that his greatest ability was in "seizing the natural characters of plants".

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