The Livens Collection of Wildflowers.

Collected and Pressed in Leicestershire 1857

The historic collection from Leicestershire of 1857 consists of a single volume of some 125 pages containing pressed wildflowers and ferns. All the flowers are identified with their English and Scientific names and on a few occasions the location that they were found. These locations are often well known beauty spots such as Beacon Hill, Martinshaw Wood, Newtown Linford, and Swithland Wood which are much visited by the public today. Others such as " Field off London Road, Stoneygate" would as it is a built up area be very difficult to find today. The Ferns however are not as a whole identified nor their locations given. Photographs of the complete collection can be seen using the links below, the pictures can also be accessed using the numbers of the pages in the Catalogue.

I understand from a letter dated 30th April 1968 from Mr I. M. Evans Keeper of Biology at Leicester Museum that this collection of pressed wild flowers and ferns is one of the oldest still surviving from Leicestershire. Extracts from this letter with some comments on the Livens Collection and details of Frederick Livens and his family can be seen at this link.

The book itself was a 10th wedding anniversary present to Mr Frederick Livens from his wife Mary on October 20th 1859 although it is not exactly clear which of the couple collected the flowers for the collection. More details about the book in which the flowers are bound can be found at the following link.

There is also a charming poem written by Mary Livens to her husband in the front of this book which can be seen at this link.

© 2005 D. A. Good