Caroline Louisa Waring Calvert (née Atkinson; 25 February 1834 – 28 April 1872) was an early Australian writer, botanist and illustrator.

Louisa, as she was generally known, was born on her parents' property "Oldbury", Sutton Forest, about 3 mi (4.8 km) from Berrima, New South Wales, and was their fourth child.

Her father, James Atkinson, was the author of an early Australian book, An Account of the State of Agriculture and Grazing in New South Wales, published in 1826.

Her obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald described her as: "This excellent lady, who has been cut down like a flower in the midst of her days, was highly distinguished for her literary and artistic attainments, as well as for the Christian principles and expansive charity which marked her career".

[7] According to Chisholm, she is also credited with being "something of a pioneer in dress reform: the long skirts of the period were simply a nuisance in scrubby areas and so this woman used, both when rambling and pony riding, attire [trousers] which is said to have aroused 'some twitterings in the ranks of the colonial Mrs Grundy'.

[8] Louisa is acknowledged as a leading botanist who discovered new plant species in the Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, and she championed the cause of conservation during a period of rapid land-clearing.

[6][9] She undertook botanical excursions in areas remote from where she lived, such as the Illawarra, but she became particularly well informed on the flora in Kurrajong and environs, such as the Grose Valley, Mt Tomah and Springwood, where she spent much of her life.

[1] Lawson writes that von Mueller's work was aided by many amateur naturalists in Australia, but that Atkinson's contribution is worthy of particular note "for the quality of its information, its scholarly commitment, its enthusiasm and persistence over time, its geographical range, its local depth, its robustness and liveliness of descriptive record, its sense of primary exploration, its sheer inventiveness".

She wrote about this on several occasions, making such statements as "It needs no fertile imagination to foresee that in, say, half-a-century's time, tracts of hundreds of miles will be treeless".

[3] An editorial note attached to the posthumous publication of her last story, Tessa's Resolve, states that these articles "are looked upon somewhat as authorities in matters relating to Australian natural history and botany".