COMMON AMERICAN SWAN (PLATE CCCCXI)

Whistling Swan, "Olor columbianus" JW 38 fine, fresh impression, a short tear in the top edge, a slight scrape on the verso, slight soiling sheet 25 5/8 by 38 1/4 in.; 650 by 970 mm. Based on a composition probably painted in London in 1838. Audubon wrote from London to his friend John Bachman: "Has Leitner published the New Plants he discovered in the Floridas? I ask this latter question because... I have represented a New Nymphea, which unpublished by him, I should like in my letter press to name after Dr. Leitner's name. "Nymphea Leitnernia'." (The letterpress actually reads "Nymphea flava, Leitner.) Since Edward F. Leitner, the German botanist, had just been killed in Florida by Seminole Indians, the existence of this new plant could not be verified until 1867, when it was rediscovered and given its present name, "Nymphea mexicana." See color illustration on Plate XXIV.