Puakala by Isabella Sinclair
This superb reproduction of the original antique chromolithograph of “Puakala” was published by Low, Marston, & Rivington for Isabella Sinclair’s INDIGENOUS FLOWERS OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS in 1885. Isabella Sinclair, the author and illustrator of the first book of Hawaiian flora, assembled forty-four delicately rendered plates hand painted in watercolors and described “The Hawaiian flora seems to grow in an easy, careless way,” she wrote, “which, though pleasingly artistic, and well adapted to what may be termed the natural state of the islands, will not long survive the invasions of foreign plants and changed conditions. Forest fires, animals and agriculture, have so changed the islands, within the last fifty or sixty years, that one can now travel for miles…without finding a single indigenous plant”. Sinclair collected specimens of each native flowering plant and sent them to Joseph Hooker, renowned botanist, who provided her with individual botanical names which she meticulously documented along with the Hawaiian names, natural habitats and blossoming seasons of each species. Sinclair dedicated the volume: “To the Hawaiian Chiefs and People who have been most appreciative friends, and most lenient critics, this work is affectionately inscribed.”
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