Sowerby’s Coloured Figures of English Fungi, by Plate Number
23 plates from James Sowerby’s book of English mushrooms, in plate-number order, with the name each goes by today.
James Sowerby was a London artist and naturalist, best known for the plates of English Botany. That book left out fungi, so Sowerby made one of his own: Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms, published in three volumes and a supplement between 1797 and 1809, with 440 hand-coloured plates.
Each plate shows one kind of fungus, often whole, cut through and at different ages, so that it could be recognised. Most plates carry a tiny line, “Published by Jn Sowerby, London”, with the date of issue.
Many of Sowerby’s names have changed since, as the study of fungi was reorganised in the nineteenth century. So each entry here also gives the name the fungus goes by today.
This page lists the 23 plates in our restored set by Sowerby’s plate number.
The plates, by number
Plate number, the common name the print carries, the name the fungus goes by today, Sowerby’s own name where the copy shows it, and the year. Each plate links to the scan of the same plate on Wikimedia Commons.
How the plate numbers were found
Our scans did not come with their plate numbers. Each one was matched to the numbered scans of the book on Wikimedia Commons, by comparing the pictures. Every plate had one clear match.
Sowerby’s own names are given only where a reader of the scanned copy wrote them in pencil as “… Sow.”, and only where the note can be read. The rest are left blank rather than guessed.
Where the identification differs
Every name here was checked on 13 November 2026 against Sowerby’s own text in the scanned copy, Index Fungorum, and the plates’ entries in Fries (1823, 1874), Berkeley (1860) and Cooke (1871). On plates 69, 103 and 204 the Commons gallery follows the name Sowerby printed, but what he drew is another species, and the later authors file the plate under the name given here. Plate 108 Sowerby printed as Agaricus latus and suspected was A. cervinus; it is the deer shield. On 1 plate the record is still open, and the table gives the Commons name beside ours.
Plate 72: the print says Mycena rosea; the Commons record says Mycena pura.
Sources & citation
- Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms — gallery of every plate, with identifications (Wikimedia Commons)
- Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms by James Sowerby — category of plate scans (Wikimedia Commons)
- James Sowerby — Wikipedia
- Index Fungorum (current names of fungi)
- Sowerby, Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms, scanned copy with pencil notes (Internet Archive)
- Index Fungorum: Sowerby tab. 69, under Xylaria polymorpha
- Index Fungorum: Pluteus cervinus (plate 108)
The original plates are in the public domain. The restorations shown here are Madten’s, at web resolution. To cite this page: Madten, “Sowerby’s Coloured Figures of English Fungi, by Plate Number,” https://www.madten.com/reference/sowerby-english-fungi-plates, 2026-11-13.