Agnes Catlow

[3] Catlow was one of a group of mid-Victorian-era women scientific writers who published mainly for children, helping to bring science education into the home.

[4] As she said of her work in the preface to Drops of Water, her 1851 book on microscopy, "My experience and observations may be more genial to the beginner, than the scientific treatises of more able authors.

"[5] Catlow was one of the earlier writers to publish a popular account of microscopy, which became something of a craze in England in the 1850s.

The profuse black-and-white illustrations of shells were mainly derived from images published elsewhere, with a few additions by Catlow herself.

Catlow's Popular Garden Botany (1855) is illustrated by some 20 plates of Walter Hood Fitch's vigorous, brightly colored paintings of common plants like narcissus, asters and fuchsia.