Wild Flowers is a collection of Emily Carr's delightfully evocative
impressions of native flowers and shrubs. She wrote these short pieces
later in life and they rekindled in her strong childhood memories and
associations. She delights in the brightness of buttercups that let
Spring's secret out, muses over the hardiness of stonecrop (How any
plant can grow on bare rock and be so fleshy leafed and fat is a
marvel.) and declares that botanical science has un-skunked the skunk
cabbage. Carr's playful words often bring a smile to readers. About
catnip, she writes: I did think it was kind of God to make a special
flower for cats. In a brief Foreword and Afterword, archivist and
historian Kathryn Bridge gives context to Wild Flowers within the body
of Carr's previously published writings. Wild Flowers is illustrated
with beautiful watercolours of wild plants by Emily Henrietta Woods, one
of Carr's childhood drawing teachers in Victoria. The originals of
Carr's manuscript and Woods' botanical illustrations reside in
collections of the BC Archives; neither have been published until now.
Woods' paintings fit so well with Carr's text. It's serendipity that
Woods taught Carr and that we have her art and Carr's manuscript in the
Archives' collection, and that neither have been published before now. -
Kathryn Bridge
