Georgina Hetley

Georgina Burne Hetley (née McKellar, 27 May 1832 – 29 August 1898) was a New Zealand artist and writer.

The family moved to Madeira, Portugal when Hetley was around 10 years old, leaving in 1852 for New Zealand when her father died.

[4] Annette McKellar bought a block of about fifty acres of land at Omata, six miles south of New Plymouth.

Following a lecture about a botanical trip to Nelson given by Thomas Frederic Cheeseman at the Auckland Museum in 1881—and with considerable encouragement from him—Hetley was inspired to write a comprehensive guide to New Zealand flora.

She spent six weeks in Christchurch, sketching the plants in their botanical gardens which came from places she was unable to travel to.

[6] Hetley went to England to seek a publisher, receiving assistance along the way from authorities at Kew, and the chromolithographs were ultimately produced in 1888 by Leighton Brothers.

[6][1] The inclusion in the book of Loranthus adamsii is notable as this native mistletoe was discovered by Mr James Adams of the Thames goldfields shortly before it became extinct.