Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Andrews, Henry C.
ANDREWS, HENRY C. (fl. 1799–1828), botanical artist and engraver, lived at Knightsbridge, Middlesex, and there published the following works:
- ‘The Botanist's Repository for New and Rare Plants’
(1799–1811), in 10 vols. 4to.
- ‘Coloured Engravings of Heaths’ (1802–30), 4 vols. folio.
- ‘The Heathery’ (1804–12), 6 vols. 8vo.
- ‘Geraniums’ (1805), 2 vols. 4to.
- ‘Roses’ (1805–28), 2 vols. 4to.
The drawings for these, which are careful and artistic, were executed by Andrews; but the letterpress accompanying them was in many instances by other hands; that of the ‘Heaths’ was by James Wheeler, then curator of the Chelsea Botanic Gardens, while in the first five volumes of the ‘Repository’ he was ‘assisted by gardeners and cultivators,’ and in the sixth ‘by a botanist whose opinions were diametrically opposed to those of the former.’ In consequence of this, Andrews tells us in the preface to his ‘Geraniums,’ that he thought it ‘much better [in that work] to try his own strength, however weak, than to remain tottering between the support of two such unequal crutches.’ Andrews does not seem to have contributed to contemporary periodical literature, and we have no record of the date of his death. Ventenat named a genus Andreusia after him, which is synonymous with Myoporum.
[Prefaces to Andrews's works.]