Seaweed Prints from
James Sowerby's English Botany

Background:

The hand-colored Seaweed prints shown here are from James Sowerby's extensive series on English Botany.  While many people are familiar with his botanical prints featuring plants found in the garden, his series also included those plants known as Cryptogams. Cryptogams are flowerless plants that propagate by spores such as ferns, algae, lichens, mosses and seaweed.

The engraved prints of Seaweed and Algae featured on this page are from the First Edition of English Botany and date to the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Sowerby (1757-1822) was one of the best known English naturalist's and illustrators of his time.  Receiving his education at the Royal Academy, he was the patriarch of a family that included sons John and George, established natural history artists in their own right.