A writer known through illustrated books
Du Cane’s publications provide a clearer account of her work than the limited biographical material available here. Library authorities record her dates as 1869–1955. She supplied descriptive prose for books illustrated by Ella, including The Flowers and Gardens of Japan and The Canary Islands. Their shared surname can obscure the division between the writing and the paintings.
In the Japanese garden book’s preface, Florence presents herself as a lover of flowers writing for visitors and for people recalling a journey. She does not claim to supply an exhaustive botanical account. Instead, the volume selects flowers for beauty, abundance and cultural association, giving the book a defined scope rather than the authority of a comprehensive survey.
Named sources and chosen views
The 1908 title credits Ella as painter and Florence as the person describing the gardens. Florence acknowledges Josiah Conder’s writing on landscape gardening, her own difficulty with original Japanese sources, and Y. Noguchi’s help with legends and tales. These statements make the routes of information visible within the book.
Her opening discussion considers proportion, stone bridges and the suggestion of distant scenery. Later flower chapters introduce the changing scale of seasonal displays. Ella’s paintings offer another selection of those subjects, while Florence’s prose supplies names and explanations. Broad contrasts between Japanese and Western ways of seeing remain part of the writer’s historical viewpoint, alongside the closer observations that give the volume its substance.
