The Falkland Islands, or Islas Malvinas, are an isolated archipelago east of South America in the south Atlantic Ocean. Uninhabited when discovered by European powers in the 1600s, dispute over its control has continued for centuries, including a deadly war between Argentina and Britain as recently as 1982. The flora is quite isolated, too, with no native trees, and the largest shrubs only reaching seven feet tall.
Elinor Frances Vallentin (1873-1924) was born on West Falkland Island when it was under British control. One of ten children, she enjoyed horseback riding with her sisters, although they were frustrated by her frequent stops to collect or look at plants. After marrying botanist Rubert Vallentin in 1904, she moved to England and there studied botanical illustration with Matilda Smith at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Rubert, who had a special interest in marine algae and ferns, and Elinor returned to the Falklands in 1909. During the next two years, she collected over 900 specimens of flowering plants, fungi, and lichens, all which are now preserved at Kew. She also drew from life many of the flowering plants and ferns before returning to England. Her efforts were praised in the 1914 Journal of the Linnean Society, “far as flowering plants and ferns are concerned, the flora of the Falkland Islands may now be said to be thoroughly known.”
Her drawings were also exhibited at a general meeting of the same society and received high praise. An example is this image of Rubus geoides. Her intention was to publish an extensive book, but her health declined. She needed the help of her husband and Smith to publish a modest publication in 1921 titled “Illustrations of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Falkland Islands.”
The plant descriptions in this book were written by Enid Mary Cotton (1889-1956), another botanist associated with Kew. Like the issues of “Curtis’s Botanical Magazine” published at the time, the 64 illustrations were hand-colored lithographs, even though for most publications that technique had been replaced by color printing fifty years earlier.
Reviewed by: Brian Thompson on November 21, 2023
Excerpted from the Winter 2024 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin