For decades Cythna Letty has been recognised as a doyen of South African botanical art. The quality and quantity of her scientifically accurate paintings, produced over the 40 years with the National Herbarium, (now part of the South African National Biodiversity Institute) would be hard to match.

Cythna was the eldest child of her mother Josina's second marriage. She was named after the heroine in Percy Shelley's poem 'The Revolt of Islam".

The Letty' had five children. For many years the family included the 6 children from Josina's first marriage. They had a strict upbringing, but were taught the love of music and learnt to play a multitude of instruments.

Walter Letty changed occupations many times and the family often moved. Cythna went to a total of 13 different schools. The Depression affected the family financially. At the outbreak of World War 1, Walter joined the army and served in France, where he chose to remain after Armistice. Josina supported the family by painting illustrated genealogies. Her love of drawing and painting was passed on to a number of her children, but only Cythna had her love for botanical subjects.

Teaching and nursing appear to have been Cythna's occupations until 1924. For the next two, she worked as an artist at the Veterinary Division at Onderstepoort near Pretoria. She was then transferred to the Division of Plant Industry under Dr I.B.Pole Evans. It was here that she started her over 700 contributions to "Flowering Plants of Africa".

In 1938 she married, becoming Mrs Forsman. They had one son.

Cythna is well known for her beautiful book "Wild Flowers of the Transvaal" which was published in 1962. Millions of South Africans handle her designs every day with the floral designs on our 10c, 20c and 50c coins. Cythna was an accomplished poet and published "Children of the Hours" when she was well in her eighties.

Her ashes were scattered in the Cythna Letty Nature Reserve near the small town of Barberton in Mpumalanga.