Cythna Letty
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Cythna Lindenberg Letty (1 January 1895, in
Cythna Letty is best remembered for her book Wild Flowers of the Transvaal which was published in 1962. When decimal currency was introduced in South Africa, she was asked to design the floral motifs for the 10, 20 and 50 cent coins. Besides painting she was an accomplished poet and published Children of the Hours when she was in her eighties.
Cythna was the eldest child of her mother Josina Christina Lindenberg's second marriage and was named after the heroine in
Cythna's father, Walter Edward Letty, had many career changes and the family were often uprooted. As a result Cythna attended a total of 13 schools, ending at the
Cythna's main occupations until 1924 were teaching and nursing. For two years she worked as an artist, at the Veterinary Division at Onderstepoort near Pretoria, illustrating diseased and cancerous organs, after which she transferred to the Division of Plant Industry under Dr I.B. Pole-Evans. It was here that she started on 730 contributions to Flowering Plants of Africa, an example of which is Anemone fanninii Harv. ex Mast.
She resigned in 1938 to marry Oscar William Alric Forssman. After producing a son, she rejoined the Division of Botany in 1945 and stayed until 1966. She was awarded a silver medal by the Royal Horticultural Society for her exhibition of flower paintings in 1970.
Her interest in
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Her ashes were scattered in the Cythna Letty Nature Reserve near the small town of
The Botanical Society of South Africa commemorated her by the awarding of the "Cythna Letty Medal" which is awarded for significant contributions to the promotion of South African flora through the medium of published botanical paintings or drawings.
Plants named for her include
Publications
- An Introduction to Botany and to a Few Transvaal Veld Flowers (with Verdoorn)(J.L Van Schaik, Pretoria 1920)
- Wild Flowers of the Transvaal (with Dyer, Verdoorn and Codd 1962) ISBN B0007IZSNE
- Trees of South Africa (Tafelberg 1975) ISBN 0-624-00671-9
- Children of the Hours - Indigenous Plants With Peculiar Habits (AD. Donker Ltd 1981) ISBN B000N2D7SM
References
- ISBN 1-84246-085-4.