AGNES CHAMBERLIN In addition to the original paintings the Chamberlin digital collection also includes early editions of Canadian Wild Flowers and two editions of Studies of Plant Life. The story of how Canadian Wild Flowers came to be published is a fascinating one and throws considerable light on the state of publishing in Canada at the time, as well as on the determination and talent of Agnes herself. When her husband died in 1865 Agnes was left with very limited means, and set to work to supply illustrations for thirty of the flowers described in Mrs. Traill's manuscript, depicting them in ten groupings. Having secured five hundred subscribers for the work, she then found there was no lithographer in Toronto willing to undertake the printing. She secured a lithographic stone and proceeded to prepare the drawings herself, which were then printed by Chewett & Co. She then set to, with the assistance of some friends, and hand-coloured the whole edition as well. The resulting book, Canadian Wild Flowers , is a landmark in Canadian printing—the first lavish “coffee table” book with coloured illustrations to be printed and published entirely in Canada. Most of these original paintings have not previously been reproduced. In addition to the ten watercolours first published in Canadian Wild Flowers in 1868, nine more paintings were reproduced as illustrations for Catherine Parr Traill's work, Studies of Plant Life in Canada, published in 1885. Twelve additional paintings were reproduced in black and white for the second edition of Studies of Plant Life published in 1906. Four paintings of mushrooms were reproduced in a report on edible fungi published by the Geological Survey.