Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson

We’ve been very clear about the publishing history of Emily Harris’s three slim volumes New Zealand Flowers, New Zealand Berries and New Zealand Ferns. They are lithograph books, printed in London by John Walker & company, and published in Nelson by bookseller Henry Douglas Jackson in October 1890. Jackson and Emily had drawn up a memo of agreement in July 1889 which stated they would divide equally any profits from sales once expenses had been covered.

Bibliographically, the three books are considered as parts 1, 2 and 3 of the publication. In fact, advertisements October-December make it clear that the books could be purchased singly or as a set of three. There is no information about the size of the print run but we know that Jackson was energetic in his promotion of the books to booksellers and stationery agents throughout the country and in Melbourne. They were enthusiastically promoted as affordable gifts that could be posted to England and elsewhere in time for Christmas 1890.

So Emily’s three slim volumes spread out from Nelson in ever-widening circles from late 1890 onward. They travelled in ones, twos and threes, alighting on library tables, in drawing rooms and bookshelves far and wide. Some owners left the books in their original card bindings. Others re-bound them singly in hard covers or as a set of three in one volume. But they were never issued as a single volume because Emily could not afford republication, and Jackson, her financial backer, died in early 1893.

We have spent a lot of time correcting the claim that New Zealand Flowers, Berries and Ferns was re-issued as a single volume and wondering why the misinformation persisted so strongly, even in a review of Groundwork earlier this year. We traced the claim to its immediate source in the Te Ara entry for Emily Harris, and to its original publication in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in 1993. Biographer Moira M Long writes:

In 1890, with the assistance of a Nelson bookseller, H. D. Jackson, Emily Harris published three books: New Zealand flowers, New Zealand ferns, and New Zealand berries (which were published the same year in a single volume, Flowers, ferns, and berries of New Zealand).

Where did Moira Long, a notable research writer who worked variously for the Turnbull Library, the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography and Te Papa, find this information? The only source that cites tripartite publication in a single volume under the title Flowers, ferns, and berries of New Zealand occurs in the monumental New Zealand National Bibliography to the Year 1960, compiled by librarian, bibliographer and historian AG Bagnall. The entry begins:

HARRIS, Emily Cumming, 1837?-1925.
Flowers, ferns, and berries of New Zealand.
[Nelson, H.D. Jackson, 1890]
Cover-title, 1 p.l., plates on 36 l. 30 1/2 cm.
First issued separately in three vols., New Zealand
berries, New Zealand ferns. . . New Zealand
flowers. . . Some copies hand-coloured. H345

Bagnall goes on to list New Zealand Berries (H346), New Zealand Ferns (H347) and New Zealand Flowers (H348), giving Emily Harris a total of four entries in his bibliography.

It would seem that Moira Long and AG Bagnall were both misled by their examination of a volume in the collection of the National Library with a cover bearing the title ‘Flowers, Ferns and Berries of New Zealand.’

But this volume has been bound by one of its previous owners, as indicated by a label on the front inner cover: ‘Brown, Thomson & Co. Bookbinders Wellington.’ It is not a republication of the original 1890 set.

The book had at least two owners before coming to the National Library. Inscriptions opposite the title page show that a TR Fleming passed the book ‘with love’ to his nephew or niece Pat at an undisclosed date. It seems likely that Fleming had the volume bound but we can’t be certain of this, or of whether ‘Pat’ donated the book to the library unless accession records can be found.

As it turns out, two Flemings are involved in the provenance of the National Library set. Thomas Reid Fleming (1863-1930) was a prominent educationalist and senior inspector of schools who was resident in Wellington until his transfer to Dunedin in 1917. His niece Patricia Mary Fleming (1916-1976) was a keen young horticulturist who grew up in Wellington before moving with her parents to Rotorua where she spent the rest of her life. ‘Miss Pat Fleming’ figures regularly in gardening competition results published in Wellington newspapers in the late 1920s and 1930s.

Checking on Wellington bookbinders Brown & Thompson, we found that the Fleming volume was bound in the 1890s (the firm traded under that name between 1889 and 1898). Thomas Fleming’s appointment in 1890 as second inspector of schools for the Wellington area brings up an interesting possibility and the prospect of a direct link with Emily Harris and her exhibition at Baker Brothers’ auction rooms on Lambton Quay 14-18 October that year.

Emily stayed with Robert and Fanny Lee and their large family in Tinakori Road, Thorndon, while she was in Wellington and the lees were closely involved in setting up and supporting her exhibition. Fanny Lee was the daughter of Nelson artist John Gully and his wife Jane. The Lees moved from Nelson to Wellington when Robert was appointed chief inspector of schools for the Wellington Education Board in 1874. He was away from home when Emily arrived in Wellington Friday 10 October 1890 but her diary records his return, at the weekend and his immediate purchase of a set of New Zealand Flowers, Berries and Ferns:

Saturday. Went to the room to unpack. Mr Lee came home, he bought a set of my books. Ina & Bob came to help me. Arranging pictures all day.

The following Wednesday Emily reports to her sisters Frances and Ellen in Nelson, itemising exhibition sales that include six sets of New Zealand Flowers, Berries and Ferns. She is disappointed:

I have scarcely sold anything to speak of for this place. My two Lincrusta panels & one of your yellow rata ones to Sir H. Atkinson & my red & yellow rata to Alfred Atkinson. Ellen’s bird’s nest, 6 sets of books & 7 Art Union tickets. Mrs Lee & Mrs Luckie have been so kind in staying with me at the room.

Perhaps Robert Lee’s young colleague Thomas Reid Fleming was one of the half dozen purchases of Emily’s books on the opening day of her exhibition, which ran for a further four days when more paintings, books and art union tickets may have been sold.

So where does this leave us in 2025?

We are pleased to report that the Te Ara entry has now been corrected and with luck the misinformation concerning New Zealand Flowers, Berries and Ferns will recede from digital memory. We are grateful to Tim Shoebridge and Neill Atkinson at Manatū Taonga – Ministry for Culture and Heritage for updating the online entry.

For a full account of the history and significance of Emily’s 1890 publication, see Groundwork: The Art and Writing of Emily Cumming Harris, pp. 163-201.

We also wish to acknowledge the assistance of staff at the Alexander Turnbull Library who have helped us research the question of republication that has accompanied New Zealand Flowers, Berries and Ferns for so long. Rare Books Librarian Anthony Tedeschi and Collections Registrar Chantalle Smith made multiple searches into library records for us and their findings underlie the substance of this post.