M.F. Lewis, Fungi Collected in Shropshire and Other Neighbourhoods: A Victorian Woman’s Illustrated

Venture into the woods alongside a pioneering female mycologist.

Very little is known about M. F. Lewis – not even her first name. Mysterious, prolific, and deeply enamored with the world of mushrooms, she left us a treasure trove of mycological illustrations. For over forty years, from 1860 to 1902, Lewis rambled across England and Wales, recording an astonishing biodiversity of fungi. Her delicately drawn, boldly colored images evoke the strange and powerful beauty of this kingdom.

This handsome volume collects hundreds of Lewis’s watercolors, contextualized by an introduction about the legacy of female naturalists in the Victorian era. It’s a must-have for today’s mushroom lovers who are curious about the history of mycology and for any admirer of vintage botanical illustration who wants to discover something different.