The Florilegium

THE ROMANTIC STAGE

The Temple of Flora

Thornton’s flowers against their Romantic skies — botany staged as theatre, and the most dramatic flower book ever printed.

The Night-Blowing Cereus — The Night-Blowing Cereus, from The Temple of Flora, Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

The Night-Blowing Cereus

A flower that blooms once, by moonlight.

Selenicereus grandiflorus
The Blue Passion Flower — The Blue Passion Flower, from The Temple of Flora, Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

The Blue Passion Flower

An intricate bloom against a brooding sky.

Passiflora caerulea
Hyacinths — Hyacinths, from The Temple of Flora, Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

Hyacinths

Hyacinths massed against a stormy sky.

Hyacinthus orientalis
The Sacred Egyptian Bean — The Sacred Egyptian Bean, from The Temple of Flora, Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

The Sacred Egyptian Bean

The lotus of the Nile, in full Romantic splendour.

Nelumbo nucifera
The Indian Reed — New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

The Indian Reed

A scarlet canna against a Himalayan sky — botany staged as weather.

Canna indica
The Garden Poppy — New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, after Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

The Garden Poppy

The flowering stem and the seed head together — beauty and its consequence.

Papaver somniferum
The Campion, Male and Female — New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, after Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

The Campion, Male and Female

Two plants on one plate — because this species keeps its sexes apart.

Lychnis
The Tobacco Plant — New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, after Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

The Tobacco Plant

Two species of the plant that paid for the eighteenth century.

Nicotiana rustica
Monkshood — New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, after Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

Monkshood

The most poisonous plant in an English garden, drawn as a decoration.

Aconitum napellus
The Bee Larkspur — New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, after Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

The Bee Larkspur

A flower with a false bee at its centre, to tell real ones where to land.

Delphinium
The Paeony, Double and Single — New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, after Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

The Paeony, Double and Single

The same flower twice — as nature made it, and as gardeners remade it.

Paeonia
Toadflax — New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, after Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

Toadflax

A wild roadside flower given a full plate in a book about empire’s hothouses.

Linaria
Cupid Inspiring the Plants with Love — New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, after Robert John Thornton, 1799–1807

1799–1807

Cupid Inspiring the Plants with Love

The allegory that opens the book — botany announced as a romance.

Roses — after the New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus, Richard Earlom, after Robert John Thornton, 1805

1805

Roses

Earlom’s mezzotint after Thornton — the darkest, richest surface in the book.