A copy, with some variations of a lithograph from an original drawing by William Swainson 'Fern-Tree', lithographed by Cuthbert Clarke at St John's College, Auckland in 1849. Both versions show the central tree-fern with its dead branches hanging around the trunk, a standing (armed with a spear) Maori male and a seated Maori woman to the left of the trunk and low scrub beyond. White's watercolour has the addition of another Maori male walking off into the bushes to the right of the trunk of the tree-fern.

It is possible that White copied Swainson's drawing, rather than Clarke's lithograph version of this view. See A-004-007 for a copy of the lithograph, which is very rare, and in which Clarke has accidentally reversed the Ns in Swainson's name, and almost in the title, although that is corrected. See also White's 'Black tree-fern' (A-292-073), which tends to suggest that White was copying Swainson's drawing, rather than the lithograph, because it is not reversed, like the lithograph. However the fact that both of Swainson's drawings that he is known to have copied were lithographed by Clarke in Auckland, may suggest that White saw the drawings in Auckland. T. B. Collinson, amongst whose sketches the watercolours by Fred White are located, visited St John's College and White, a fellow member of the Royal Marines, may have visited with him and seen the Swainson drawings there..

Other Titles - Fern-Tree, after William Swainson and Cuthbert Clarke.

Inscriptions: Recto - bottom right - Fred. J. White [in red-brown brushpoint]; Recto - top right - 64 [in pencil, numbered by T. B. Collinson.

Quantity: 1 watercolour(s).

Physical Description: Watercolour & gouache on paper, 331 x 236 mm

Transfers: From Manuscripts & Archives - March 1993, from [MS 50].