Cythna Lindenberg Letty (1 January 1895, in

Standerton Standerton is a large commercial and agricultural town lying on the banks of the Vaal River in Mpumalanga, South Africa, which specialises in cattle, dairy, maize and poultry farming. The town was established in 1876 and named after Boer leader Co ...

– 3 May 1985, in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

), was a South African

botanical artist Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolor paintings. They must be scientifically accurate but often also have an artistic component and may be printed with a botanical ...

and is regarded as a doyenne of South African botanical art by virtue of the quality and quantity of her meticulously executed paintings and pencil sketches, produced over a period of 40 years with the National Herbarium in Pretoria. 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

Percy Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achi ...

's poem " The Revolt of Islam". The Lettys had five children and for many years the six children from Josina's first marriage were part of an extended, disciplined family. They were taught to play a number of musical instruments. 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 Pretoria Girls' High School. With the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Walter enlisted and served in France, and remained there after peace was declared. Josina supported the family by illustrating genealogical charts. Her artistic skills were passed on to a number of her children, but only Cythna had a passion for botanical subjects. 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

, 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 i
''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 ''

Zantedeschia ''Zantedeschia'' is a genus of eight species of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to southern Africa from South Africa north to Malawi. The genus has been introduced on all continents except Antarctica. Comm ...

'' led her to a study of the genus and her revision appeared in ''Bothalia'' 11: 5-26 (1973). She illustrated numerous books on botany such as the Botanical Survey Memoir ''Trees and shrubs in the Kruger National Park'' (1951) by L. E. W. Codd, who was at that time director of the Botanical Research Institute. Others were ''The Stapelieae'' (1937) by White & Sloane, and ''Grasses and Pastures of South Africa'' (1955) by Lucy K.A. Chippindall. In 1973 she received an honorary LL.D. from the

University of Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

Her ashes were scattered in the Cythna Letty Nature Reserve near the small town of Barberton in

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

. In 1989 the National Botanical Institute published a portfolio of seven prints of flower paintings selected from two journals kept by Cythna's mother, Josina Letty, and housed in the Institute's Mary Gunn Library in Pretoria. 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 '' Crassula lettyae'' Phillips and '' Aloe lettyae'' Reynolds. She is denoted by the author abbreviation Letty when citing a

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or Group epithets must conform to the '' Inte ...

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) * ''Children of the Hours - Indigenous Plants With Peculiar Habits'' (AD. Donker Ltd 1981) ISBN B000N2D7SM

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Letty, Cythna 1895 births 1985 deaths 20th-century South African painters 20th-century South African women artists Botanical illustrators