Markawasi - Peru's ancient and mysterious stone forest. Markawasi (also spelled Marcahuasi), located at 12,500′ in the Andes Mountains. YouTube - Marka Wasi - Peru's Inexplicable Stone Forest - Kathy Doore

Kathy Doore (1953 - 2015) has written Markawasi: Peru's Inexplicable Stone Forest She had a website about Markawasi (and her book) but it is no longer online.

The man responsible for what little is known about Marcahuasi, was the late Daniel Ruzo, a Peruvian explorer. This interview was probably his last, filmed in 1991. With his wife Carola translating (both pictured left), we learn of his theories about the creation of the images in Markawasi. A forgotten race created the statues before they were destroyed by a world-wide cataclysm. A warning to us, he says.

According to the Ruzo’s, the previous humanity lived on earth in Proto-History; before our civilization. They were very advanced, able to travel world wide and left evidence of themselves in many places. (see Romanian “Sphinx”, right) This agrees with theories of the Hopi Indians suggesting we are not the first humanity to reach a degree of developmental sophistication, but probably the fourth or fifth.

Quoted from: The Mysterious Stone Monuments of Markawasi Peru

I've seen the illustrations here and there growing up in Ontario. I didn't pay attention to who created them. Just enjoyed the detail and the colours, the types of flowers: trilliums, lady's slipper, jack-in-the-pulpit, wildflowers I would look for in woodlands, gardens, anywhere they might turn up. Today I looked up the name and discovered she was the daughter of Susanna Moodie, a well known author here in Ontario.

Canadian born, Agnes Dunbar Fitzgibbon Chamberlin (née Moodie; 1833–1913) was an Ontario artist.

She was born Agnes Dunbar Moodie. Her parents were John and Susanna Moodie. Agnes learned how to paint flowers from her mother.

Susana (Strickland) Moodie, sister of Catharine Parr Traill, wrote about life as a New Canadian, 'Roughing it in the Bush' about her experience farming in Ontario during the 1830's. Her sister, Catharine, wrote from a different perspective, about history in Ontario.

In 1868, Canadian Wild Flowers was published, viewed as one of the first serious botanical works published in Canada, which included text by Catharine Parr Traill. The book, very expensive for its time, was sold by subscription, largely through its author's own efforts; as an enterprising widow, she also worked as an illustrator to support her children and herself.

Agnes had 2 husbands (remarried after the first died in 1865) and 9 children.

In 1863, she began her paintings of Canadian flora to illustrate a book by her aunt, Catharine Parr Traill. After the death of her husband, she began work on a book of Canadian wild flowers, with her water-coloured illustrations and Traill's text. The book attracted 500 subscriptions, a significant number at the time.

Her paintings have been presented at exhibitions in Canada, USA, and England since 1886. She died in Toronto in 1913. Her heirs presented her paintings and copies of Canadian Wild Flowers and Studies of Plant Life in Canada to the University of Toronto in 1934–5.

• Summarized and quoted from Wikipedia.

I think we still have a copy of one of the reprints of the wildflower book. My Mother enjoyed Canadian and Ontario history along with gardening, antique furniture and other hobbies that became popular in the 1970's. That must be where I first saw these illustrations.