James Shirley Hibberd

James Shirley Hibberd (1825–1890) was a very popular gardening enthusiast.

He edited three gardening magazines. These including Amateur Gardening, the only nineteenth century gardening magazine still published. He wrote over a dozen books on gardening and natural history.

Many of his ideas were far ahead of his time.He promoted town gardening, bee-keeping, vegetarianism, water recycling, conservation and the prevention of cruelty to animals.

One of his botanical works was about beautiful leaves. Hibberd said he chose them “from amongst the thousands of beautiful leaved plants with which the earth is adorned.”

Here are some of his lithographs of leaves for you to choose from. They are antique prints, made in the 1860s.