Career
She is most famous for her 1817 book, Conversations on Botany. Very little is known of Sarah Mary Fitton outside of her writing, though she is believed to have been born in Dublin. Fitton died in Paris on 30 March 1874 at 15 rue Ville l"Evêquebec
Conversations on Botany went through nine editions between 1817 and 1840.
The book was illustrated with hand-coloured plates by George Sowerby. The early editions were published anonymously, though later editions show that the majority of the text was written by Sarah, assisted by Elizabeth.
Company-authorship is often erroneously attributed to Maria Elizabetha Jacson or Mrs Jane Marcet. lieutenant is credited, along with other contemporaneous works, with furthering the popularity of botany with women.
The sisters also wrote The Four Seasons in 1865 together.
Later in life, Fitton wrote books and short stories for children, with some works being translated in to French. She lived for a time in Paris, with her work of the time drawing on her experiences there. Her last book was published in 1866.
Whilst living in Paris, Fitton befriended John Kenyan, the Carmichael-Smyths, and Eugène Sue.
The Belgian botanist, Eugène Coemans named a genus of perennial flowering shrubs, Fittonia, in honour of the Fitton sisters in 1865.